


Treasure of Aurora

by ZaneOri



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Explicit, OT8, Space Pirates, They love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29241861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZaneOri/pseuds/ZaneOri
Summary: Captain Kim Hongjoong and his fellow crew were perfectly content with their lives, skirting the law and seeing just what the outer rim offered. A crazed loyalist from the Federation decides to ruin everything, and now Hongjoong has to reveal his greatest secrets to his seven closest, and has to complete a prophetic mission that could save an entire galaxy. Or doom it.
Relationships: Choi Jongho/Choi San/Jeong Yunho/Jung Wooyoung/Kang Yeosang/Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa/Song Mingi
Comments: 41
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter 1

“I won’t do it!”

  
  
“San you have to, we have to get out of here!”

  
  
The dark haired youth glared from out of his crystal enclosure, eyes flickering from their normal chocolate brown to a bright red as flashes of explosive lasers flared against the shields of the ship, the whispered code of a thousand voices threatening to drown out his slim captain, shouting at him from the other side of the glass.

  
  
“I won’t leave them! I can...we can come around!” San snapped, the pleading in his tone more obvious than he wanted, voice near cracking as he tried to hold in his emotions.

  
  
The captain stared at him with hard blue eyes, shaking his head, the dozen bead decorations in his silvery grey mullet sparkling in the ship’s red alert light. “We can’t. San please...do as I say. Jump twice.”

  
  
San tensed. “Captain...we’ll lose their signature if we bounce twice.”

  
  
“Choi San. Do what Captain Kim says.” Another voice snapped through the tense air of the bridge, making San jerk as he stared in shock at the slim black haired male near the gunners station.

  
  
San stared into sharp grey eyes for a long moment as he silently tried to deny, before growling as he slammed his foot down, eyes turning vibrant crimson. He swung his arms up, the brilliant red trailing after his glowing fingers, the ship seeming to come to life and swinging wildly up and then forward. He let the thousand voices of _Illusion_ fill his mind, picking out the engines, the feel of the sensors on the hull of the ship coursing over his own skin as he banked left, left arm sliding through the air forward and right sliding up, the nanites in the crystal cylinder he resided in following his motions, following his mental orders and physical movements as he maneuvered them into proper space.

  
  
He barely heard the captain speaking to someone, comms were not his focus at the moment so he blocked those specific nanites out, pushing aside his anger and fear as he pulled his arms back.

  
  
“Let’s get burning now.” he said quietly, throwing his arms forward and ducking his head, sending a soft apology to the crippled shuttle far below and behind as the _Illusion_ slid seamlessly into wormhole space.

_*one hour before*_

  
  
Captain Kim Hongjoong stared restlessly out the front image screen into the vastness of space. A bare blue dot in the center of the screen was his focus, a smallish planet near the inner ring that had been perfect for their supply run. It had been supposed to be quiet, easy, and that’s why he let his weapons expert and his medic go. Yeosang had requested the ability to go, both because he wanted to get a specific set of medical supplies that the others just had no knowledge on, and because he’d wanted to be on land after so long among the stars. Mingi had offered to go because none of the others, except San, had really shown interest in going planetside and Hongjoong had had an odd feeling, one that had stopped him from letting his first navigator off the ship.

  
  
“Any news?” the voice of his second had the slight male looking away from the screen finally, frowning as he met concerned grey eyes.

  
  
“None. They’re two hours late.” He replied tightly, fingers running in frustration through his silvery grey mane, making the trinkets and beads clink against each other as he looked back to the portal. “I’m worried, Seonghwa. Mingi is never this late.”

  
  
“Perhaps what Yeosang was looking for took longer than they estimated? Medical supplies, especially rare plants and herbs, are sometimes hard to track down.” Seonghwa soothed, moving to step up beside the other, gently bumping him with his shoulder and giving him a soft twitch of the left side of his mouth as a smile.

  
  
Hongjoong sighed, relaxing minutely as he nodded. “You’re right. If they needed help we’d be alerted right?”

  
  
As if he had summoned the worst case scenario, when the words left his mouth a tri-pitched angry siren began blaring as the ship went to sudden red alert. Hongjoong and Seonghwa looked back to the portal in shock when they saw explosions in the distance, the silver and black chrome of their shuttle being followed by a large cruiser that was pumping lasers at the small ship fleeing towards them.

  
  
“Captain!” Yeosang’s voice came over the comms, and Seonghwa had the medic’s shaky image on the left side of the main portal instantly.

  
  
“Yeosang, what happened?!” Hongjoong demanded as he stepped up to the defense system, shields raising just in time as a laser slid off the nose of the _Illusion_ , shaking the ship.

  
  
“We don’t know! We had just finished and were leaving when Feds called us and demanded we land! We didn’t do anything!” Yeosang replied, his normally calm soft tone ticked up slightly as he was calling and flying at the same time, trying every evasive action he could against the tractor beam trying to lock onto them.

  
  
Hongjoong bristled at that different tone; Yeosang was panicked. “Where’s Mingi?” he asked quickly.

  
  
“We got hit leaving atmo, he hit his head on the bulkhead.” Yeosang replied, shifting forward as he pulled the pilot yoke to the left, another blast of lasers nearly clipping his nose. “I’ve got him stabilized but--”

  
  
An explosion rocked the _Illusion_ and sent the captain slamming into the console ahead of him. “Seonghwa what was that?!” He hollered, grunting as he pulled his stomach painfully off the chrome display.

  
  
“There’s two more cruisers behind us!” Seonghwa called out, another display coming up showing the two ships now at their tail.

  
  
A burst of cussing in possibly six or seven languages ratcheted out of Hongjoong’s mouth as he looked back to Yeosang. “Keep flying doc, we’ll get you!”

  
  
Yeosang nodded “I’ll try, be careful!”

  
  
“Comin’ in!” A sudden call came from the back of the bridge as the door opened, a blur in a black jumpsuit launching into the crystal cylinder in the center of the room.

  
  
Hongjoong watched as his navigator lit up like a crimson star, eyes burning red as he clapped his hands and rubbed them, shifting his hips twice left and right before stomping his foot and launching himself into a near hypnotic dance. San’s eyes were unseeing of the room around him, pulsing bright red as the _Illusion_ seemed to come alive to his movements, the ship bucking and diving down so fast Hongjoong had to brace himself.

  
  
“Try to fly towards the shuttle, we’re gonna have to swing and pick them up on the move.” Seonghwa called out, his voice having moved to the gunners station, the nano-tech lighting up as his fingers danced over the display, getting the guns ready.

  
  
San bent low and then up, feet lifting off the floor as he pulled his body taut, arm stretched out and _Illusion_ moved with him, dipping and then going up, spinning to keep the lasers flying at her from impacting. Hongjoong was thankful that most of the insides of the ship are gyroscopic so no matter what San did they very rarely felt it, but it was still a little unnerving to watch the sky around them twist and spin with the dark haired male’s movements.

  
  
“ _Captain! We’ve got a hit on the left aft engine! It’s not happy!_ ” a call from engineering made him tear his eyes away from the still far off shuttle, tapping his comm quickly.

  
  
“Keep her together Yunho, is Wooyoung with you?” He asked, nervous suddenly to have all his crew accounted for.

  
  
“ _I’ve got Jongho, I think Wooyoung is getting the net ready._ ” Yunho replied, voice sounding strained, and Hongjoong didn’t think for a second he wasn’t doing six things at once to keep them moving while he was talking.   
  
  
“ _Aye captain, ready to lasso the_ _Wave_ _when we get close_.” Wooyoung’s voice piped up, alleviating Hongjoong’s concern that somehow he’d lost count of his crew.

  
  
“Great, we’ll get them as soon as San moves us into pos-” His words were cut off with another pained grunt as he slammed forward, jerking to look at San who had slammed into the crystal cylinder and was staggering a bit. “San, what happened?”

  
  
“Array blast...wasn’t expecting it.” He replied, shaking his head to clear the sudden stun, eyes flickering back to their dark color as he looked at Hongjoong. “Since when do Fed cruisers have array blasts?”

  
  
“Since now.” Hongjoong cursed. Array blasts were like small waves of concussive force, they could cripple ships with lesser shields, and even the _Illusion_ could only maybe take two or three more hits without serious damage. They were dangerous, as they arced out for kliks in an ever widening band and any who used them were in danger of hitting their own ships.

  
  
“Wait, if they have them that could mean...Yeosang take evasive action! You have to move!” Hongjoong slammed open the comms, the window popping back up as Yeosang looked at him in confusion.

  
  
“Cap’n...hey?” Mingi’s voice trailed onto the screen as the redhead sat up, wincing from pain, eyes unfocused. “We’re almost there right?” his speech was slightly slurred and that worried Hongjoong with an icy stab at his heart.

  
  
“Mingi! The Fed ships have array blasts you have t-” his words were cut off as both men suddenly shouted in the shuttle, and the connection dropped. Out the window they could see the remnants of an array blast from the cruiser behind the shuttle, and Hongjoong tensed. The shuttle wasn’t destroyed...but it wasn’t moving anymore. No...no it was moving backwards.

  
  
“They have a tractor lasso on them!” Seonghwa called out, cursing quietly as he worked to begin to ready close range lasers.

  
  
“I’ve got them.” San said, grunting as he threw his arms forward, curling the _Illusion_ down and then towards the shuttle as quickly as he could. “Get you close enough...get ready Seonghwa.” he said, voice even and with an edge of steel.

  
  
There was a proximity alarm going off and Hongjoong looked down, eyes widening. Four..there were four Fed cruisers now. “San! EVASIVE!” he shouted, but it was too late.

  
  
The array blast slammed into them on the left side from the newly arrived Fed cruiser, sending the _Illusion_ spinning and knocking her off kilter. Hongjoong slammed into the chair by the comms station, grunting as he held on, just barely missing cracking his head on the side of the monitor. He looked up, staring at San’s prone form against the glass, the navigator’s temple bleeding from a new wound. “S..San..” he called out, thankful when the other male staggered back to his feet once more, blinking at him.

  
  
Hongjoong had a sinking feeling that this was planned, there had never been this many Federation ships at once, they were after something. No...not something...them. He slammed his hand on the comms. “Come in _Wave_! Rocket, Stardust, can you hear me?” he asked sharply into the ether.

  
  
Thankfully the ether answered back as the camera flickered, Yeosang staring at him, nerves all over his face. “Captain, we can’t break the pull,” he reported. “The engines are fried.”

  
  
“I know. It’s..where’s Rocket?” Hongjoong asked, and Mingi was on screen a second later.

  
  
“Rocket, you watch him. Keep Stardust safe, okay?” He ordered, and Mingi’s eyes widened, before he nodded sharply. “We’ll be back. I promise you both...we’re going to get you.” Hongjoong’s voice cracked as he spoke, but Mingi simply nodded again, and even smiled slightly.

  
  
“I know Captain. I trust you. We’ll be okay. We’ll see you soon.” He replied, deep voice almost as if it were trying to sooth Hongjoong, before the camera went out.

  
  
That was when he had turned, when San had point blank refused him, and he’d understood to the very depths of his soul that refusal, but he wouldn’t let the Feds take them all, take _Illusion_. They could man a six-person rescue mission, but they couldn’t break free if all of them were in prison. As the shuttle vanished off his view port, and the rush of blue that was wormhole space took over, Hongjoong stared numbly, barely listening to the reports and questions fielded by Seonghwa, mind a million kliks away with two that were now missing. 

_I’ll find you, no matter the cost, you won’t stay gone forever._


	2. Chapter 2

Wooyoung stared blankly up at the painfully white ceiling of the shuttle bay, blinking sluggishly. Most of the ship was no longer boring white. When they’d first boarded the _Illusion_ it had been whites and chromes and...what had Yeosang called it? Aesthetic? No, it had been some medical term he thought...sterile? Sterile, that had been it. Boring, he’d added and Yeosang had grinned at him and agreed. Captain Kim had promised them that once they got the rest of their crew they could decorate every last millimeter of the ship in whatever they wanted. It had been just them and Seonghwa, and then Yeosang had somehow found Yunho on a planet, injured and pathetic enough to win all their hearts while he was healing. Yunho had come with a protective firebrand named Mingi. Mingi had in turn adopted a quiet, very strong former Fed named Jongho, and then they’d all agreed to not throw San off the ship after he’d talked fast and spun a story that had made Seonghwa laugh when they’d caught him sleeping in an unused crate he’d snuck into midway to the outer rim.

  
  
Now every wall, ceiling, and many floors had decorations. Soft blues and silver stars for Seonghwa, bold brazen reds and golds for Hongjoong. Deeper reds and blacks in abstract shapes showed where Jongho lingered. Mixtures of deep greens and oranges in artistic designs clashed with vibrant primaries and sharp graffiti in the med-bay for Yeosang and himself. Neon colors featuring yellows and pinks for Yunho in engineering. The armory constantly changed colors as Mingi hit on something that gave him inspiration. Amongst all of them, just as he’d integrated himself with the group, were mixtures of vibrant and soft pastels and rainbows that let them know San had been there. Every inch of _Illusion_ was now theirs...everything except this ceiling.

  
  
Why was this ceiling white? Was it too high? Wooyoung frowned, blinking slowly. They should paint it. He’d ask Yeosang to share some of his hydro-sprays, maybe steal some from San and ask Seonghwa to paint some of those galaxies and stars he was fond of...maybe some sparkles. Sparkles would be nice...right? He wondered if they could get the whole night sky in there, sparkling bright around them.

“Wooyoung?”

  
  
Wooyoung blinked again, looking to his left, staring in confusion at the tall blond who had interrupted his thoughts. “Yunho...why is the ceiling white?” he voiced his concern.

  
  
“Because we haven’t painted it yet, the repulsor lift is busted...Wooyoung do you know why you’re on the floor?” Yunho asked hesitantly, carefully approaching him and kneeling down.

  
  
Wooyoung blinked again, looking back up at the ceiling. He was still concerned that it was boring and sterile and not them...the ship wasn’t supposed to be boring or not the crew...the crew...

_San! EVASIVE!_ Hongjoong’s remembered shout suddenly cut a bolt of adrenaline through him and he was up and sitting in an instant, staring at Yunho in blind panic. 

“Where’s the others?! Is everyone okay?! I ca-ow.” Wooyoung groaned as sudden agony lanced through the back of his skull, and he curled in on himself. “What happened?” he whined.

  
  
Yunho sighed in relief and reached out to the lavender haired male to gently rub his back. “We got hit by an array blast. I think you got thrown from the lasso.” he replied gently. “Do you think you can stand? San is in med with Jongho, we can get you down there too. Everyone keeps getting concussions.”

  
  
Wooyoung tried to stand, but he hissed as his balance failed him completely, and sighed in annoyance as Yunho gently picked him up, throwing his arms around the other’s neck. “We didn’t get them back did we?” he asked, pain obvious in his tone, and it was not at all from the head injury he’d sustained.

  
  
Yunho grimaced, holding him tighter. “No. Captain wants to get everyone healed up and I need to rebuild a connector on the aft left engine, but once that’s done we can go get them.” The tall blond carried him swiftly out of the hangar, down the hall, hanging a left and then down the ladder carefully, not letting Wooyoung down despite the other male’s complaint.

  
  


“You’re gonna hurt your back carrying me like this.” Wooyoung huffed when he was finally deposited in one of the six beds in the med-bay.

  
  
“You’re not that heavy, now if I had to carry you and Mingi around I might complain.” Yunho smiled faintly at him, looking over at the other occupied bed. “How’s the patient, Jongho? Is he gonna live?” he teased.

  
  
Jongho snorted as he nodded. “It’s unfortunately terminal, few ever survive from being this irritating.” he replied deadpan, putting down his dermal regenerator, arms crossing over his black jumpsuit with it’s deep red triangle cutting horizontal across his chest, deep red hair hanging in a near fringe over his eyes.

  
  
“Hey! I’m awake you know.” San pouted, staying put despite his squirming as he looked over Wooyoung worriedly. 

“An unfortunate side effect of being irritating.” Jongho replied breezily as he headed to Wooyoung, gently attaching the diodes of the scanner drones that came and hovered around his bed.

  
  


“Yeosang is gonna kill you for activating his medi-drones without him being here.” San grumped, pushing himself off his bed and starting to pull on his tight black jumpsuit, covering his bare legs and tight undergarments and then over his black tank top, fixing the collar closed high on his throat.

  
  
“I’ll cherish when he’s here to yell at me.” Jongho replied, frowning at the padd in his hands as the medi-drones chirped and beeped, scanning over Wooyoung. “You have a fracture in your left wrist and a pretty decent concussion focused on the left side of your head. Let’s get you set up.”

  
  
Wooyoung pouted but brought up his left arm carefully, letting Jongho attach a white brace to his wrist, shivering as he felt the tingle of the nano-gel squishing against his skin. “I hate this stuff.” he grumbled as he accepted the oxygen mouthpiece next, closing his eyes as a force field went around his head, and the gel filled it, encompassing his head like a fish bowl.

  
  
“I’ll send San to wash your hair for you once you’re done.” Jongho replied, patting his shoulder in sympathy.

  
  
“Stop volunteering me for things.” San grumbled, moving next to the bed and gently rubbing Wooyoung’s right shoulder. “Just let me know when you’re done, I’ll come help you, without it being an order from Lord Bossypants.” he shot a fake glare at Jongho.

  
  
“Lord Bossypants clears you to go back up to the bridge. Help Yunho run those diagnostics please?” Jongho glanced up from his padd at them.

  
  
Yunho nodded, offering him a bright smile before patting San on the shoulder. “We’ll have _Illusion_ up and running in no time, c’mon.”

  
  
San gave Wooyoung one last shoulder rub, before nodding. “Alright, see you soon. Listen to Jongho, or Hongjoong will probably give you one of those captain pouts.” he shot him a smile, before turning to follow after the tall blond.

  
  
Wooyoung shook his head as he watched them leave, looking at Jongho, raising his eyebrows in question.

  
  
Jongho sighed as he studied the other’s face. “Four of them, Youngie. Four damned Fed ships...they shouldn’t even be there, there was no reason for them to be out there like this.” he sighed in frustration, finally sitting on the rolling stool next to Wooyoung’s bedside.

  
  
Wooyoung frowned in sympathy, reaching out with his right hand to gently run it through Jongho’s red locks, trying to convey what he was thinking through touch alone. Jongho leaned into the touch, shoulders drooping as he accepted the comfort.

  
  
“I know. I know it’s not my fault, I can’t know all the routes the patrols take. I just...I told Hongjoong we’d be safe there. We were supposed to be safe.” his voice cracked a bit and he looked so helpless as he looked towards the empty space where Yeosang would be taking up if he had been there.

  
  
Wooyoung clenched his fingers, tugging sharply on Jongho’s hair, making the young man wince and look at him. Wooyoung held his gaze heavily, eyes narrowing as he shook his head slowly once.

  
  
Jongho flushed, sighing as he snorted, reaching up and lacing his fingers with Wooyoung’s to hold his hand. “You’re right...nowhere is perfectly safe. What happened, happened, and now we have to focus on rescuing them. Wooyoung when did you get so smart?” he grinned weakly at him. 

Wooyoung smiled back, shaking his shoulders and lifting his chin in a haughty way, playing it up until he heard a soft snort and was secretly pleased as Jongho chuckled. 

  
“Must’ve been the head injury.” Jongho said suddenly, and laughed when Wooyoung pulled his hand away and pushed at his shoulder in pretend offense. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Thanks for enjoying my story! I'm going to start posting some visual things at my tumblr if you're interested! 
> 
> Tumblr: https://8makes1nonsense.tumblr.com/


	3. Chapter 3

Mingi is loud.

  
  
It’s not that Yeosang minds, in fact it’s the opposite. Every time Mingi starts talking to him loudly, carrying on one sided conversations that the larger all but shouts, voice sounding rough from use and his movements wild as he stalks around the small cell they’re both in, Yeosang just curls his slender legs into his chest, arms wrapped tightly around them, chin on his knees as his eyes follow the spastic motions of the large male inside the cage with him, letting that voice soothe his frayed nerves.

  
  
Mingi is loud, banging on the walls near the electrified ion field that keeps them inside the cell. He starts in the morning when the lights go from their soft dim blue to harsh blinding white.

  
  
“Good morning bosun! Good morning Lieutenant! Good morning asshole!” The redhead calls out cheerfully, waving wildly at the three large grumpy looking men that wander into the brig.

  
  
So named Asshole glares at Mingi, and the glare never shifts to Yeosang. Yeosang shrinks in on himself anyway, the glare given to his fellow shipmate is enough to make his skin crawl, enough to make him want to stand up and shout too. To pull attention to himself somehow. His tone is soft and his voice monotone, but he could do it, he could bang and swing and yell and make a nuisance of himself. If only...if only he could.

  
  
_ “Please.” The first night they were there Mingi had begged him, voice soft and cracked as big fingers had carded through Yeosang’s sweat slicked blond hair. The medic had just returned from the interrogation cell, had been tortured for hours and had been dumped unceremoniously back in their cell, back spasming and bruises forming on his wrists and ankles. _

_  
  
“Please Stardust...please let them take me, okay?”_

_  
  
Mingi’s voice had shook, and Yeosang had blinked stupidly up at him, small delicate fingers reaching up and shakily tracing the tear tracks down the other man’s face._

_  
  
“M-Minkyway...you..” he tried, wincing as his throat spasmed and he whimpered._

_  
  
Mingi’s arms tightened around him and he could feel the big male trembling as he sobbed quietly into Yeosang’s hair. _

_  
  
“Captain told me to protect you...please let me. Please?” he begged so softly, so quietly...Yeosang had never heard him so quiet._

_  
  
“O-Okay...okay Rocket...okay..” he replied, never wanting to hear that quiet heartbroken tone again in his entire life, the code names they carried slipping from his lips but he hoped Mingi could hear his real name beneath._

  
  
So Mingi was loud, and he thrashed and he fought and he pulled all of the attention, and when at last the others came and they dragged him out of the cell towards the interrogation chamber, Yeosang clung to himself, trembling as adrenaline coursed through him. Adrenaline that had no output, could  _ have _ no output because if he let them torture Mingi, he could forgive himself once the captain had them, once he was back and the others were around him and he could sink into the voice of Wooyoung or San or any of the others and forget for a blessed moment.

  
  
Later, when Mingi was back in the cell, the lights dimming and his body spasming, head in Yeosang’s lap on their small bunk, Yeosang would gently card his fingers through sweat soaked red hair. He would gently untangle the matted locks from the blood that had seeped from a newly inflicted head wound, and he would gently lean down and kiss the circular burn from a synaptic responder on Mingi’s temple. He would let Mingi curl into him and bury his face into Yeosang’s stomach, and he would let Mingi sob softly from the pain as he gently cooed and soothed him into a restless sleep.

  
  
In the morning it would start again. Where Mingi found the strength and the drive to keep going day after day was beyond Yeosang, but he knew once he was safe aboard the _ Illusion _ , he could forgive himself.

  
  
_ Captain told me to protect you...Yeosang please I can’t...if something happens to you...please. _

_   
_ _   
_ Yeosang could forgive himself for every hurt Mingi endured, because he knew with the surety of every star blazing in the galaxy, that if he was taken in Mingi’s place, Mingi would never forgive himself until every star in that galaxy had become dead and cold. And that, well, that Yeosang could never forgive. 

\---   
  
It had been three days since they were captured, and Yeosang was honestly glad when the Bosun came and took him along with Mingi, despite Mingi’s anger. The blond medic was all but climbing the walls and had been about ready to knock Mingi out just to take a few hours of the torture himself. Yeosang gently ran his pointer finger along Mingi’s knuckles, a signal to keep his temper under check, they’d be okay. Mingi looked at him, wanting to argue but he sighed when he saw the determination in Yeosang’s blue eyes, frowning petulantly to show his dislike but he fell silent as they were marched into the interrogation room.

  
  
The first time he’d been brought into the room, it had been a harsh glowing sterile white, a single sort of bed with straps on the stomach, wrists and ankles that held the occupant down as the bed had moved from horizontal to vertical, and a very menacing looking electro-shock bot had been present. This time none of that existed, the room was a softer blue colored light, and the room had a large desk, and two chairs in front of it. Behind the desk was who Mingi had delighted in giving the moniker Asshole.

  
  
They were not so kindly forced into the seats in front of the desk, and Asshole gave a sleazy fake friendly smile that made Yeosang’s skin crawl. Neither Yeosang nor Mingi returned it, and stared at him expectantly. When it was obvious neither of them were going to say anything, Asshole’s smile turned a bit sharper and he nodded. 

“Let’s begin mm?” he said while raising his hand, fingers flicking out and a nano-screen appearing showing Mingi’s face. “Song Mingi, former brigadier from Incheon, a planet near the central federation. Reports are that vanished from active combat, and resurfaced several years later on a derelict old Anyang ship with a mess of a crew of outlaws and pirates.”

  
  
Asshole waited, raising a brow as Mingi simply raised his chin, staring right back at him, not confirming, denying, or even really showing any reaction to his past being spoken so brazenly. He then looked at Yeosang, fingers twitching and Yeosang’s face appearing where Mingi’s had been.

  
  
“Kang Yeosang, you were a difficult one to look up. Then again I’m not surprised considering Pohang was destroyed ten years ago. Most of your surviving people fled to Federation space, but apparently not your family. You went to a prestigious Ilsan medical university did you not? Very interesting credentials to drag through the mud by allying yourself with a bunch of murderers and thieves.” 

Yeosang offered a small smile as Asshole finished, leaning forward slowly as if to say something, and he could see Asshole almost grin in triumph, so sure he’d gotten a response from one of them.    
  


Then Yeosang sneezed.

  
“Bless you.” Mingi said politely, and Yeosang nodded his thanks.

  
  
Asshole grimaced, glaring at the both of them. “You have two options, gentlemen. Your reprehensible crew of vagrants is no doubt at this moment deciding how they wish to try and come and get you. You can either let them come in, guns blazing, with no hope of survival, or...I let you contact them, you give them coordinates to rendezvous with my ship, and you all go free once you do as I ask.” 

Mingi raised a brow, tilting his head to the side like a questioning dog. “You’ve spent two days torturing me about a fake robbery, you stole all our supplies from our ruined shuttle, I don’t believe you. What would you want from us?” 

Asshole smirked. “Yes, well, it wasn’t the most diplomatic way to get your captain’s attention I admit. However, considering your crew tends to avoid Federation space and it is very difficult to track that ancient beast of a ship you all live on, my orders were followed a bit more excitedly than I’d originally intended. Still, it will get me my results.” 

Yeosang frowned, eyes narrowing faintly. “And what exactly would you want us to do? What could we do that you and your Federation”, he spat the word as a curse, “can’t?”

  
  
“Ah! He does speak. I was concerned our first welcome session had rendered you mute.” Asshole said pleasantly. 

Yeosang shifted in his seat, feet planting fully on the floor as he pulled himself to his full height, crystal blue eyes locked on Asshole’s now. “You have refused to answer our question twice now. What do you want with our crew, and with us?” his voice never raised, but the edge in it made it obvious he wasn’t going to ask a fourth time. 

Asshole’s grin faltered and he frowned, shaking off the sudden shiver that ran down his spine at the slight man’s tone. “It’s a mission. A mission that Federation ships cannot go on. Something that I think will interest your traitor captain.”    
  
Mingi bristled immediately, growling as he gripped his chair “Our captain is not a traitor you--”

“I’ll do it.” Yeosang said suddenly, cutting through Mingi’s rant like a knife. 

Asshole had been about to stand, curling his hand around a weapon that looked suspiciously like a whip on the table, but both he and Mingi blinked at Yeosang's outburst in surprise, and Asshole had let go of his weapon.

“I’ll call the captain. This has something to do with Anyang, does it not? Not everyone knows Anyangi history, but you speak so venomously about it...you’re a loyalist?” To most, Yeosang’s words almost sounded polite, an innocent inquiry, but Mingi was looking between him and Asshole now, eyes widening in understanding.    
  


Asshole sneered, fingers clenching around the whip handle but he managed to keep himself seated. “Yes.” he seethed, taking a quick breath before nodding curtly. “A comm padd will be brought to you. You are dismissed.”    
  


Mingi snorted “You’re not my commanding officer.” he muttered, looking at Yeosang. “Well?”    
  


Yeosang smiled at him then, nodding. “Commanding officer says yes.” he replied playfully as he stood, nodding to Asshole. “Good afternoon.” he then turned as if they had just had a productive meeting, heading for the door with Mingi, and following the guard back to their cell.    
  


Once inside, Mingi curled up with Yeosang on the bunk, backs against the wall, Yeosang resting his head comfortably on Mingi's shoulder.    
  


“What do you think this is about?” Mingi asked softly.    
  


“I don’t know, but I know they’re planning to try and capture  _ Illusion _ if we don’t warn the captain.” Yeosang replied, frowning. “I don’t know what they would be seeking in Anyang’s past...it’s all superstition at this point, ancient relics and stories.”    
  


Mingi frowned in return. “He’s gonna be mad we reached out.” He said finally.    
  


Yeosang broke into a small grin at that. “I know, but I’d rather him be mad and alive than meet him in the afterlife and him be mad at us then.”    
  


Mingi chuckled “You have a point.” he paused, a thoughtful look coming over his bruised face. “The captain...he never got involved with the loyalists and the alliance did he?” he asked finally.    
  


Yeosang shrugged faintly. “It’s something I don’t know, even Mars doesn’t know, he’s never really talked about what happened when he left Anyang.” the blond gently nudged Mingi down so that the bigger was now splayed across the bed, head in Yeosang’s lap. 

“Get some rest, you’ll want it for when captain decides to kill us through the comm padd.” he said, carding his fingers through Mingi’s bright red locks. 

Mingi snorted. “I guess if I had to die with anyone from him yelling at us, I’m glad it’s with you, Sangie.” 

  
Yeosang smirked at that, continuing his gentle head scritches as he looked playfully thoughtful. “Mm...I guess I agree with that, though don’t worry Rocket...we’ve got a couple tricks up our sleeves still.”   



	4. Chapter 4

Hongjoong watched as his crew slowly filed into the communal sitting area, fidgeting in his seat, picking at his single painted nail. He had been silently counting them over and over again, trying to soothe his panic of two missing by smothering the others with his absolute attention. It had taken a full day for Wooyoung to be healed up, another day for Yunho and San to get the engines repaired and for Jongho to quickly fix a hull fracture on the underside of _Illusion._ The silver haired captain was starting to go crazy from not doing something, _anything_ , to retrieve Mingi and Yeosang. 

  
  
A hand gently patted his shoulder and he pulled himself out of his racing thoughts, looking up in confusion at Seonghwa, honestly not remembering when he had appeared at his side. “Wooyoung is on his way down.” the dark haired male spoke. Hongjoong nodded, giving him a small smile of thanks as he looked back at the door.

  
  
Yunho was sitting at a nearby table with San, the two of them playing some kind of hand signal game, San laughing as he beat the blond and Yunho rolled his eyes dramatically. “You’re just winning because you’re cheating.” he accused, and San gasped, hand going to his chest in mock offense. 

“How dare you! I would never cheat against my beloved friends and crew.” the dark haired navigator huffed, and even Hongjoong had to crack a smile at how ridiculously high-pitched and offended he said it. 

“Uh huh, what about when you cheated Jongho out of his desserts for a week, or when you cheated me into doing your kitchen chores when you first got here.” Wooyoung’s voice carried easily as he entered, moving directly towards San and practically flopping on the laughing youth. 

“That wasn’t cheating, it was strategy. You guys just weren’t playing the same game I was.” San replied, arms going around the lavender haired male as he held him close. 

“Right, cheating.” Wooyoung replied, nuzzling into San comfortably and throwing his legs over Yunho’s lap as his gaze landed on Hongjoong. “Cap, what’s the plan?” 

Hongjoong watched them, relaxing slowly as he listened to them banter. He knew the chatter was partly for him as much as it was for them, calming nerves and trying to keep up a front that they weren’t all worried to death for their two missing crew. At Wooyoung’s attention he nodded, standing and waving his hand, the nano-projection coming up to show a far off planetary system. 

“This is Federation space, an unnamed uninhabitable planet near Kishak. Jongho’s informants have told him that this is where the ships who’s ion trails we were able to track have been located the last couple days. They don’t seem to be going anywhere, which makes me think they’re either waiting for their next orders...or they’re waiting for us specifically.” He said, glaring at the little dots around the glowing orb that represented the planet. 

“I’ve been told there’s no official recognition of either Yeosang or Mingi’s arrest, or detainment. They haven’t given any official reports, and there’s not even a black report...they were taken on purpose and it has something to do with us. There’s more, but I’m still decrypting it.” Jongho chimed in, frowning at the flickering projection. 

Hongjoong offered him a wide smile “You did well, don’t doubt yourself.” 

Jongho looked down, wanting to disagree but Hongjoong smiling at him like that made it very difficult. He finally nodded, knowing the silvery haired captain wouldn’t look away until he at least pretended to agree.

  
  
Hongjoong raised a brow as he held the other’s dark gaze steadily, but continued. “My plan is to go in low, see what we’re dealing with just off their sensor range, and then use a small boarding party on _Horizon_ while _Illusion_ distracts. Boarding party will be Yunho and Seonghwa.”

  
  
Yunho frowned, glancing at Wooyoung who had bristled immediately at not being included. “Are you sure? I’m pretty slow at running around a big ship like that.” the blond asked worriedly. 

“I’m sure. I need Nova on standby with the lasso, he’s the best with it and I can’t afford to have anyone miss when we grab _Horizon_ before jumping.” Hongjoong looked at Wooyoung sympathetically. “I’m sorry, I can’t trust this to anyone else.”

  
  
Wooyoung still looked like he wanted to argue, but finally sighed and his shoulders slumped. “I know. I won’t let you down Joongie.”

  
  
Hongjoong’s next words were interrupted by a soft chime, and he raised a brow at the glowing red incoming comm blink on his projector. It was a hidden comms channel that only the eight of them normally used, and he glanced at the others. “You don't think?" he stared at the light. 

“Answering it is the only way to know.” San replied, fingers gently rubbing soothing circles into Wooyoung’s back. 

“Mm, I agree with Kit.” Seonghwa said, reaching out and flicking his finger to the left to answer the comm. 

Yeosang’s face appeared on a flat projection, and Hongjoong practically jumped out of his chair. “Stardust?!”

Yeosang offered him a sheepish smile. “Hey.” he gave a weak wave, turning whatever he was using to both catch Mingi and a quick flash of a Fed in a uniform, the look in the blond's crystal blue gaze obvious...they were being listened to, and this was forced. 

Hongjoong felt murderous anger rise when he saw Mingi. The red head was beaten, his face a myriad of bruises and cuts, and it looked like his nose had been broken. Yeosang had a few faded bruises on his face, and that made the captain’s heart ache. Mingi had listened, and he knew Yeosang was probably dying from survivor’s guilt. “What’s happening?” he asked, trying to force his rage down. 

“Uh. You’re being cordially invited to wherever we are. The Feds want something only Anyang can offer, that being you I think.” Yeosang replied easily, deep voice carefully light as he tried to feed as much information as he could while trying not to be obvious. “The very polite captain Ass-ah, what was your name?” Yeosang turned and offered the uniformed man near him a polite smile and a fluttering of lashes, getting a terse angry reply back. “Mm, apologies, Commander Avalon would like to meet with you, and once we’ve returned to the ship he wants to request your help with something I think the Feds want us to find.”

  
  
Hongjoong had tensed when he heard his home planet’s name, but as Yeosang continued he forced himself not to look at Seonghwa for guidance. “They plan to let you go and then ask for a favor? That sounds...suspicious.” he replied carefully. 

“Oh very. I’m pretty sure they’re going to betray us but it’s what I was told to te-” Yeosang grunted as a sudden fist collided with his head and grappled the padd away from him. Hongjoong was met with the face of the officer that the blond medic had been flashing him from time to time. 

He glared at the older man, taking in his face to later memorize for when they ended up somehow killing all of the Feds that had dared harm his crew. Commander Avalon had a fiery expression and hazel eyes that tried to burn into Hongjoong. Hongjoong sneered at him, raising his chin in defiance as he waited. 

“Captain Kim. You’re to come to these coordinates, and you can have your pathetic crew back once you agree to my terms. Understood?” Avalon snarled.

  
  
“My ship arrives, you bring them in a shuttle to our ship. We discuss terms, and then you go back. Otherwise you won’t like the results.” Hongjoong snapped back, arms crossing over his chest, eyes narrowing as he waited, never blinking as he stared back at the Commander.

  
  
Avalon finally cracked, raising his lip in a sneer but he nodded. “Fine. Wherever you are, it shouldn’t take long for you to arrive I imagine. Ping this comm before you come out of jump space or you’ll be destroyed.” with that the comm line went dead, the holo-screen flipping back to the projection of the planetoid.

  
  
Hongjoong didn’t have to wait long for the crew to erupt, Wooyoung practically leaping off San and Yunho to stand and start shouting, San right behind him and Yunho trying to quiet them both. He raised a hand to try and silence them, but while San calmed Wooyoung was loudly cursing in that melodic flowery language only Ilsan could produce. Hongjoong steeled himself, turning to face Wooyoung directly. 

“Nova, I know.” he said sharply, and finally Wooyoung stopped, the use of his pet name snapping him back into reality. Hongjoong took a quick breath to continue “If we can get them on board it’ll be easy to jump and just either kill them or ransom them, but we need to get Mingi and Yeosang on board first. We’ll jump just off their radar, we’ll ready _Horizon_ just in case we need to escape, and that inhospitable planet will be our landing point until they get tired of trying to track us down. We’ve been through worse.” 

“Not much worse.” Wooyoung grumbled, fidgeting still as he crossed his arms over himself in a self hug. 

Hongjoong winced internally. Wooyoung and Yeosang were rarely apart, the two were usually holding hands or sitting together if they weren’t doing chores or working, always touching. It was the way of Ilsan, and without his Other Hongjoong knew Wooyoung was suffering. Holding his arm out Hongjoong motioned for Wooyoung to come over, and wrapped the lavender haired male in a hug. “We’ll get him back, both of them.” Hongjoong promised him softly. 

Wooyoung was trembling faintly, and he buried his face into Hongjoong’s shoulder. “I know. We trust you Jup.” he whispered back. 

Seonghwa gently ushered the rest of the crew out to leave the captain and the cook some alone time, following San and Jongho up to the bridge as Yunho went to engineering to do a final prep. 

“I don’t like this.” Jongho said finally as he moved to sit at comms, tapping the holo-screen alive. 

“I don’t either, but unfortunately the Feds are offering us three things we can’t live without.” Seonghwa replied as he moved to the weapons screen, feeling awkward as he tried to navigate Mingi’s chaos to make sure everything was running perfectly. 

“The first two are Sangie and Minkyway, what’s the third?” San asked as he moved to his crystal cylinder, the door sliding shut seamless behind him and he fluttered his fingers to send out a trail of crimson nanite sparks to wake up the sensors around him. 

“Some kind of adventure. Whatever they want, we’re the only ones they’ve deemed can do it.” Seonghwa smirked. “I don’t plan on giving them the satisfaction of completing it for them, but I’m very interested in what it is.” 

“It has something to do with Hongjoong right? Yeosang mentioned Anyang. That’s where he and _Illusion_ are from right?” Jongho asked curiously. 

Seonghwa nodded “I don’t know a lot about Anyang, _Illusion_ is one of their military class ships with the special neural nanite connection, I have no idea how Hongjoong got it.” 

“Hongjoong got it because Hongjoong is the best at everything.” Hongjoong’s voice called from the door, grinning at the three immediate faces of guilt at him having caught them discussing himself. “San, you ready?” he asked, moving to take his place in the center of the room, standing for now as he watched the front portal.

“Three jumps should do it. We’ll be there in three hours.” San reported as his eyes began to glow, and he pulled his arm back, a trail of red nanites following it and gathering at his clenched fist. “Load the arrow.” he muttered, the engines whining to life and _Illusion_ pulsing in ready as the wormhole tech activated. “And... _fire_.” San shot his arm forward, the nanites exploding out in a swirl, and _Illusion_ followed, the blue streaks of wormhole space swallowing them with a blip.  
  
\--- 

Yeosang darted his tongue out against his bottom lip, grimacing as he tasted the acrid iron of blood. He tried not to worry his lip, it had become partially swollen from where the Commander had punched him and it had only just stopped bleeding. 

“Stop that, it’s gonna get worse if you keep on bothering it.” Mingi’s low voice was a balm to his worried mind, and the blond glanced over at the redhead standing next to him, giving him a wry small smile. 

“You can’t use my own medical advice against me, it’s not allowed by physician law.” He huffed.

“Yes I can, Jupiter said I could so it’s allowed.” Mingi replied, grinning lopsidedly back. 

Yeosang sighed dramatically “I guess if he said it was alright, I’ll make sure to stop per your advice.” As he spoke he leaned against Mingi, soaking in the strength from the bigger man before straightening up and continuing his staring out the massive portal they had been positioned in front of. 

Around them the bridge of the Federation ship they were on was bustling, the main crew at their stations and assistants doing other things or maintenance or a thousand other small things a ship this size would need. Yeosang never liked big ships like this, he’d been stationed on a few in his early years but had always found his way back to whatever backwater station Wooyoung had gotten himself hired on. When they’d met Hongjoong, who had by luck needed his skills and Wooyoung’s, and who had a small ship that felt like home, he had jumped at the chance and had never regretted it. 

“Sir, the _Triumph_ reports an unidentified wormhole entry into the system.” the comms officer called out. 

Yeosang frowned as he looked back out into the inky darkness of space, but he didn’t see anything. Then again who knew how far away the _Illusion_ would be when it came in, it could even come above or behind or below them and they’d never know just by looking. 

“Mm. Is it them?” Avalon asked as he moved up beside Yeosang and Mingi, piercing eyes glaring out the projected window. 

“ _Triumph_ is reporting that it is. They’ve stopped just outside our main sensor range.” the comms officer replied. 

Avalon shook his head. “If only he’d listened.” he muttered, looking back at Yeosang and Mingi. “Your captain seems to need to learn a lesson in following orders.”

  
  
Yeosang bristled, looking at Mingi, but Mingi wasn’t paying attention to either of them, instead watching a display beside them. Whatever was on it, he seemed very focused, so Yeosang looked back at the Commander. 

“What do you plan to do? We can just comm him easily, wormhole space is notorious for eating signals, you probably just didn’t get their call.” The blond said, trying to keep his tone neutral.

  
  
“Mm, unfortunately I’ve dealt with his kind too many times. He’s planning something, and the best way to make sure he comes to heel is a show of force immediately.” Avalon looked to the station that Mingi was also focused on. “Ensign, fire when ready.” 

Several things happened at once when the ensign pulled up some kind of weapons lock and the main portal had suddenly zoomed in on the shiny silver and white that was the _Illusion_ to focus fire. Yeosang immediately tried to shout to stop them, but he was overpowered by a sudden roar of rage to his left that had him flinching as Mingi flung himself at the weapons station and punched the ensign in the face. 

Chaos erupted as multiple members of the security force attempted to get Mingi away from the station but he seemed to almost be made of immovable steel, heavy metal tipped boots driving into the delicate plasti-steel and destroying the underside, ripping at data-chips and diodes as he found them, until at last the system flashed blue and stuttered to a blank console. 

“Commander, our weapons array has been knocked offline. We’re having trouble rerouting it.” another voice called out. 

Yeosang had frozen in place, watching Mingi with wide eyes as the redhead would not go down, backing up to the main portal display. Their eyes met and Yeosang moved to go up with him, he wasn’t that great at fighting but he couldn’t leave Mingi to fend for himself, when heavy hands grabbed his small shoulders and he was pulled back into the firm body of the Commander. Cold steel was placed against his throat and Yeosang tensed, fear and anger filling him as he forced himself not to struggle. 

It had the desired effect as Mingi’s eyes narrowed and he snarled but hesitated in his next action. While he was about to go at the Commander it gave the security officers time to grab their stun batons, one going into the big male’s side, the other into his back, and Mingi dropped with a shout. 

“That...was unexpected.” Avalon growled, pressing the knife closer into Yeosang’s throat. “What is our weapons system status?”

“System still down sir.” the voice came again.

  
  
Yeosang couldn’t stop watching Mingi, who was laying on the floor, jerking from occasional electricity coursing through his system. He pushed forward, not caring as the knife bit into his flesh. “Let me go.” he demanded, voice trembling and low. 

Avalon sneered, but did so. Yeosang rushed to Mingi’s side, dropping to his knees and quickly taking his erratic pulse, flipping him over. “Rocket you bastard what was that?” he snapped as he used his shirt sleeve to wipe sweat and blood off the redhead’s face. 

“T-They...have an EDP...g-gonna...hurt…” Mingi tried, wincing as his tongue felt fat in his mouth, but this was important. Yeosang had to know how important this was. “E-Electro..”

  
  
“Electro Disruption Pulse. It’s designed to safely take down a ship’s shields and all outward sensors while keeping the ship and it’s crew alive.” Avalon said dryly. “And your idiot here has stopped us from using ours.” 

Yeosang glared at the Commander, but then looked back at Mingi, still not understanding what had driven the big male to do what he’d done. Mingi reached out, gripping Yeosang’s hand tightly. “Outward sensors...and anything they’re connected to...electrified.” he grit out. 

“Thankfully _Triumph_ has hers fully operational. Tell them to fire immediately.” Avalon looked at the uniformed officer at the comms station, who nodded and relayed the order. 

Yeosang’s eyes went wide as understanding hit him, and he jerked “Wait...Wait don’t please!” he pleaded, but it was too late.

  
  
Helplessly Yeosang watched as the Federation ship that had been stealth monitoring the _Illusion_ flickered into being, firing a blindingly white orb at the smaller ship. It slammed into _Illusion’s_ left side, a dazzling glittering display of what looked like electric eruptions cascading over the hull from one side to the other, leaving _Illusion_ listing to her side, seemingly completely dead. Yeosang couldn’t breathe as he stared at her, eyes filling with unshed tears as Mingi’s words hit him again. Whatever was connected to the sensors had taken the full brunt of that blast too. Turning he shot to the Commander, not caring if he was about to be killed as he stalked up to him and grabbed his lapels. 

“We need to get on that ship NOW!” The fact Yeosang was shouting, actually shouting, had stunned the Commander into absolute silence, and stopped him from doing anything as he stared at him in shock. “I have to take care of our navigator, you just..” Yeosang stammered and let go, moving again to help Mingi up, looking back at the baffled man he’d just grabbed.

“We have to go now or you aren’t going to have anyone to go on whatever mission you want to send us on.” He seethed. 

Avalon seemed to finally snap out of his daze, frowning as he shook his head. “It’s fine, it’s not meant to destroy the ship, just nullify it for a bit. We’re going.” he nodded to his Lieutenant “You have the bridge.” and with that he began to lead his injured prisoners towards the shuttles. 

Yeosang didn’t feel how heavy Mingi was, mind racing in a thousand different directions as he helped half-carry the injured redhead. As he planted Mingi into a shuttle seat, moving to sit beside him as Avalon and another pilot along with three security officers got ready to take off, he couldn’t focus on anything but the memory of that glittering pulse that had gone through _Illusion_ , his mind continuing to stop dead on one name. 

_San._


	5. Chapter 5

_ When they’d decided to let San on the bridge after one month of him learning the other jobs on the ship, Hongjoong had decided to ignore the small slip of a man who had all but attached himself to Seonghwa’s side. Seonghwa was practically indulgent with the youth, explaining systems while the captain stood in his crystal cylinder, the nanites activating with golden light as he moved, directing Illusion through the darkness of space. He was glad he could sink into the never ending data that poured into his mind, using his body to direct the flow, keeping it fast and chaotic. When he came out of it hours later, exhausted but happy with their trajectory, he was met with grey eyes and a gentle smile, Seonghwa watching him from the comms station.  _

_ “What?” Hongjoong had asked, raising a brow as he stepped out of the cylinder.  _

_ “He was mimicking you again.” Seonghwa replied simply.  _

_ Hongjoong snorted “We’ve had this conversation, I’m not giving him control of my ship.” he snapped, fingers cutting through his wild short locks, making them stand up even more.  _

_ Seonghwa sighed “Hongjoong, he’s smart, fast, and quick thinking. He’s dealt with synaptic responders like this before in other ships, and having someone else in that cylinder means you’d have time to actually captain.” He did not say rest, he would never win this argument if he brought up the fact he wanted the small silver haired man to rest.  _

_ Hongjoong crossed his arms defiantly. “What if we give him control of the ship and he flies us into a star? Or kills us all and steals it?” he challenged.  _

_ “What if Minkyway took every weapon we have given him and blew us all up? What if the Pup shut down the engine and the oxygen? What if Stardust injected us all with some kind of neurotoxin? Jup, you’ve gathered us all because we’re dangerous murderers and some of the best in our fields...you’ve given us the positions you’ve given us because we’re family and you trust us. All he's looking for is a family, and a place to belong.” Seonghwa stood finally, moving over to Hongjoong, reaching out to rest a hand gently on his shoulder. “I’m not asking you to trust him yet...but just give it a thought okay?” He then moved to go around the captain and headed out of the bridge. _

_   
_ _   
_ _ Hongjoong hadn’t wanted to, but he forced himself to get to know San better. He had gone from barely tolerating the cocky youth to finding himself enjoying the other’s company. Seonghwa had been right, he was quick witted and funny, but more than that, he was kind. Hongjoong had watched him carefully as San had integrated himself with the crew. He had fit in easily with Wooyoung, had treated Yeosang with respect and had earned the quiet medic’s trust. He’d gotten on with Mingi like a house on fire, happily cleaning and doing whatever Mingi told him to do, and asking the red head a thousand questions that Mingi had excitedly answered.  _

_ Once San had gotten what he deemed enough personal information from each crewmate, he had launched his next plan. He would bring meals for Mingi in his armory when the big man refused to come out from whatever project he was working on, and sweet treats for Yeosang when the medic fell asleep at his desk in the med-bay. He would plot with Wooyoung about presents for the others, and worked to make sure that even Hongjoong had dinner near every night.  _

_ For Yunho, San seemed to change tactics, more quiet but still friendly, simply staying with him in engineering and helping where the blond had asked him to until Yunho started looking for him every day. Once he’d figured out Yunho’s likes he would start bringing breakfast and snacks down, hiding the latter in places for the always on the move engineer to find.  _

_ Finally there was Jongho. San had never felt like he quite cracked the mysterious redhead but Hongjoong had seen it in the quiet man, that he had started tracking the lithe youth and watching over him protectively. It amused him as Jongho was at least two years younger than their stowaway, but then again Jongho had always acted older than most of them. Jongho had begun joking with the dark haired male and teasing him, and San had teased back or simply accepted his teasing with a smile and a nod. Hongjoong had sighed...Seonghwa was right. This kid needed a family, and he needed a purpose.  _

_ That was how San had ended up in the med-bay with Hongjoong explaining the nanite technology that bound him to Illusion, how it worked with his body and his mind. San had listened very seriously, asking questions and studying what Hongjoong had given him, until at last the captain had offered him the navigators position. San’s eyes had widened comically, and he’d shyly asked if Hongjoong was serious. Hongjoong had paused, remembering what he’d observed over the weeks, and he had found himself nodding easily.  _ _   
_ _   
_

_ As Yeosang injected San slowly with the nanites that would replicate into his system and latch onto his muscles and brain, would connect him with Illusion intimately, Hongjoong had felt a sense of relief. It had been a risky choice, and the first two weeks of San learning how to navigate had ended up with them almost in an asteroid field, but the first time San had lead them through wormhole space all on his own, the first time he’d truly spoken to Illusion and the first time he’d flashed a brilliant confident smile at Hongjoong as he’d told the captain he was ready to be first navigator, Hongjoong knew it had been the right choice.  _

“Breathe. Come on you star crossed bastard, breathe!”    
  


Jongho’s voice echoed in Hongjoong’s mind, and he tried to stand, weak as a newborn kitten and unable to move against strong hands keeping him down on the floor. “W..What..” he struggled, mouth tingling and unable to form words.

“Shh Jup, it’s okay.” Seonghwa said, gently patting his cheek, shifting so Hongjoong’s head was more comfortably in his lap. 

Hongjoong stared up at him in confusion. Why was Seonghwa crying? What had happened? He looked over at where he’d heard Jongho’s voice, blinking slowly when he saw a prone form in black on the ground beneath Jongho’s pumping hands on the form’s chest. 

“S..Seong…” he tried again, mind sluggish, his body tingling and feeling numb and too alive all at once. 

“It’s okay Hongjoong. It’s okay.” Seonghwa’s voice cracked as his arms tightened around the small man. 

Hongjoong slowly started to remember. They had arrived, San had been going over the scans, crimson eyes staring sightlessly as the ship’s sensors fed him information. There had been some kind of flash, a warning of a ship coming out of stealth and a searing pain that had racked his entire body. He remembered a hellish scream that had pierced his mind, and then nothing. Something had hit the ship, what had caused that? 

“Oh thank every deity in the galaxy.” Jongho said, his voice was accompanied by a ragged gasp from the body he’d been working on. He immediately went to carefully lift San up, resting him against his shoulder and chest. “That’s it Kit, breathe...in, out.” 

Hongjoong tensed as he saw blood dripping from San’s ears and his nose, a thin trail at the corner of his mouth. He reached up, touching his own nose, eyes widening when he saw it come away red. He looked up at Seonghwa in alarm, and the grey eyed man shook his head helplessly. 

“Something hit us, I think it was to take out the sensors and shields but...but because San, and you, are connected to all of them I think the attack went into you too.” he explained shakily. “The cylinder filled with white light and then San, he...his scream was so loud..h-he collapsed once it dissipated. Jongho’s been working on him since then.” his fingers curled into Hongjoong’s hair, as if Seonghwa had to remind himself of the other’s presence even if he was already holding him. “I thought...I thought you’d both..” 

Hongjoong winced, the numb feeling was fading, and he was able to move, taking Seonghwa’s hand and holding it tightly. “I’m okay, Mars.” he said gently, looking at Jongho. “Can you move him to med?” 

Jongho gently picked San up, the smaller male whimpering as he slumped into the redhead’s shoulder. Jongho grimaced and shifted the navigator's weight just a little in his arms. “It’s okay Kit, just keep breathing.” he told him softly, more softly than Hongjoong had ever heard Jongho speak. He turned then and headed for the med-bay. 

“We should get you there too.” Seonghwa said, helping Hongjoong stand. 

“No, they’re coming.” Hongjoong said quietly. “I’m not about to sit out when I have someone to beat the hell out of for nearly killing my entire crew.”

Seonghwa frowned “How do you know they’re coming?” 

Hongjoong paused, wincing as he felt the voices he’d been mostly ignoring for years whisper to him. “San isn’t active right now.” he said finally. “So  _ Illusion _ is switching to the secondary nav, me. Her scanners are broken mostly but she can track a little, there’s a shuttle coming our way.” his heart clenched at the idea that San had been hurt so badly  _ Illusion’ _ s emergency system had kicked in.    
  


Seonghwa looked as pale and worried as he felt. Hongjoong reached out to take his hand. “C’mon. We need to find Yunho and Wooyoung, and meet them in the shuttle bay.” he turned, walking slowly but confidently forward, leading his second behind him until Seonghwa walked on his own. They had to show a strong front against these Federation assholes, and once they had Mingi and Yeosang safe Hongjoong quietly wondered if they had enough power to blow the nearby sun into supernova to blow the entire system, and every Federation ship there, to Hades. 

\---

Jongho looked at the monitors hooked to the male on the bed across the room as he washed his hands, rhythmically counting to ten with each before finally rinsing them of the blood he’d managed to get on them when he’d been wiping down San’s face. The readings were less a bullet point and more an essay, every internal organ and muscle had some kind of damage. It made his brain itch, the captain had to have sustained at least some of this damage too and he wasn’t in there right next to San being checked out...and he couldn’t be. 

Hongjoong had stopped by to check on his nose and ears, and to clean up just a bit, the captain stopping by San to gently brush over the unconscious man’s forehead with his fingertips, before vanishing once more with Seonghwa in tow, the taller explaining there was a shuttle incoming from one of the Fed ships. That meant Jongho was effectively going to stay in med with San and stay hidden. He doubted, by now, it was much of a secret he’d abandoned the Federation and had taken up with a notorious criminal pirate gang, but it still soothed Hongjoong’s nerves to keep Jongho hidden and safe while the actual notorious criminal pirates dealt with the talking. 

Which left Jongho with an unconscious navigator he was fussing over with increasing worry. Not for the first time he wished Yeosang was there. The blond would know what to do, wouldn’t have to question and double question every decision he made. The youngest sighed, running his fingers through his dark crimson locks in frustration, and then groaning as he went to go wash his hands again. As he was drying them he heard the softest whimper from his patient, and he hurried over just in time to catch San when the dark haired youth tried to lunge off the bed. 

“Woah! Hey, San, stay put.” Jongho quickly ordered as he pushed the other back down. 

“Gotta...we’re in danger, gotta..” San babbled, jerking against the hands holding him as he shook his head wildly. 

“Shh, we’re not in danger. San it’s okay, we’re stopped, everyone is okay.” Jongho soothed, wincing as he reached up and brushed his hand over the other’s forehead, feeling the heat there of a starting fever. It was to be expected, the nanites were rebuilding and fighting to fix the damage their destruction had caused, and that meant San’s body was going to be fighting them as they restructured themselves. 

San trembled, falling limp as he turned his head. “J-Jongho? I’m...what happened?” he finally managed to get out, still breathing hard. 

Jongho petted through his hair gently, sighing as he tried to sooth the trembling beneath his fingers when he moved his other hand in circles on San’s abdomen. “They hit us with a weapon that fried the sensors that you were attached to. You’ve got to rest until the nanites self repair.” he glanced at the list of injuries. “And the rest of you repairs.” he added grimly. 

San frowned, eyelashes fluttering and Jongho tensed. He had seen the damage that had been done from the list but it was still a shock and his heart fell into his stomach when the navigator opened his eyes, and they were a milky white. San tensed immediately as he blinked again, squeezing his eyes shut and then reopening them. 

“Can’t see...J-Jongho I can’t see.” he said, suddenly panicking, alarms blaring for his skyrocketing blood pressure and heart rate. 

“San! Kit, it’s okay! It’s only temporary!” Jongho tried as he held the other down more harshly. 

“Captain’s gonna throw me off. I’ll be useless, I can’t be useless, you'll get rid of me if I’m bad, can’t be useless, gotta fix it.” San lunged up, digging the fleshy bottom of his hands into both his eyes as if somehow that would help, rubbing them harshly. 

Jongho had frozen in horror when he heard San’s panicked babbling, but he quickly swung into action, grabbing a hypospray and injecting a sedative into the other’s neck. He grimaced as he caught San when he fell, shushing him gently and petting through his hair. As the drug kicked in the panicked babbling slowly came to a stop. He laid the navigator back down, hands shaking as he sat down heavily on the rolling stool behind him. San’s words rang in his head, the pure panic and absolute conviction that if he was so-called useless, that they’d throw him off the ship...it was almost more than he could handle. He wanted so badly to call Seonghwa, or Yunho or Wooyoung or anyone to come and take over for him, he wasn’t good with this kind of thing and he could feel his own anxiety clenching in his chest. Shakily the redhead rested his forehead against the bed where San lay, closing his eyes as he took slow breath. 

The comm embedded behind his left ear chimed gently, followed by the low calming voice of the second in command.  _ “Are you alright?”  _

Jongho grimaced, he had an inkling the very perceptive Seonghwa knew he wasn’t. “I don’t want to pull anyone away from what they’re doing.” he replied, since he knew outright lying would only have the tall male there in moments no matter what was going on outside. 

There was a pause, before Seonghwa replied  _ “Would you like me to send Yunho?” _

“I...Yes. Please.” Jongho said finally, he hated admitting weakness but he could feel himself fraying. Yeosang had worked hard with him to admit when he needed help, and he couldn’t let his friend down. 

_ “He’ll be there in a moment. Just a little longer,  _ _ Bangpaje _ _.”  _

Seonghwa’s use of his rare nickname and call sign made Jongho smile faintly, he took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. 

“Jongho?” 

At last, Jongho could look up, Yunho’s concerned face on the other side of the bed. He looked down at San then back at their engineer. “I had to sedate him. He...He panicked and I couldn’t get him to calm down.” he winced as his voice trembled, he hated feeling this weak. 

Yunho frowned, moving around the bed and said nothing as he wrapped the youngest in a warm hug, not making a noise of acknowledgement when he felt those broad strong shoulders shake, when he could hear very quiet sniffling sounds. It didn’t last long, this sort of thing never did, especially with Jongho, but Yunho didn’t let go until at last the other pulled back slightly. 

“Don’t apologize.” Yunho said quickly and Jongho’s jaw snapped shut, his face sheepish as the blond called him out. Yunho quickly smiled, crouching down a bit so he could be face to face with the sitting male. “You did really well. Cap said you were the one to keep Sannie with us? I knew all those health and safety lectures with Yeosang we had to sit through were worth something, you were always the best student in them.” His head tilted to the side as he held the other’s gaze, grinning in a silly way. 

It didn’t take Jongho long to break into a weak smile of his own, shoulders relaxing slightly. “Thanks.” he said quietly. “When we have a minute, we’ll need to talk to Hongjoong. San has a lot of damage, and...he’s lost his vision. It’s temporary according to the readings, but it’s going to be that way for a few days at least.” San’s panicked pleading rang in his mind, making him feel nauseous. 

Yunho had moved to the scanners, reading through the injuries on the unconscious navigator, grimacing as he went through them. “I always wondered what might happen if those nanites had some kind of issue...it’s amazing the captain is actually standing.” 

“His were mostly dormant, which is why I think his reaction wasn’t as severe.” Jongho reached up, gently running his fingers through San’s hair again. “I thought he was dead. He wasn’t breathing for almost six minutes.” his fingers instinctively went to find the other’s pulse even though he could hear the soft beep of it on the sensors, feeling better as he felt it thrum calmly but strongly beneath them. “When he woke up he panicked, he thought we would throw him off the ship for being blind. He thought it made him useless, and we wouldn’t let him stay if he was useless.” he grimaced. “Why would he think that?” 

Yunho frowned as he moved next to Jongho, changing a couple of the sensors out and adding some more of that healing gel under one that he placed over a specific spot at San’s ear. Only after he’d fussed for a few moments did he answer. 

“I don’t know. He didn’t exactly come to us the best way, we did almost throw him off the ship multiple times in that first few months before Jup decided to keep him. He’s never talked about it though. Maybe he thinks the only reason we let him stay was because he was able to do something for us.” The blond petted over San’s forehead, sighing. “We’re a bunch of anxiety riddled idiots sometimes.” 

Jongho snorted “I’d never thought of it that way, and you’re right.” he sighed “Are the others alright?”

Yunho nodded, pulling up another of the rolling stools to sit beside the redhead. “Yeah, I don’t think those Feds could do anything with Wooyoung and Seonghwa next to Hongjoong.” Reaching over he pulled Jongho to him, hugging him with one arm and nudging him until Jongho sighed and relented, resting his head on the tall man’s shoulder. 

“Thanks, Pup.” Jongho said softly, closing his eyes as he just soaked in the comfort. 

“Any time. We’ll get through this...and then we’ll make Jup take us on vacation to some kind of nice beach planet somewhere.” Yunho smiled, tightening his arm around the strong man at his side, other hand reaching out to take San’s hand, squeezing it to let the unconscious male that they were still there. Whatever came next, he’d make sure they were all still there at the end of everything. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your comments! I'm so happy to bring this story to you and that you enjoy it! I figured you guys could use a little key for their codenames/nicknames so here! 
> 
> Hongjoong - Jupiter  
> Seonghwa - Mars  
> Yunho - Pup  
> Yeosang - Stardust  
> San - Kit  
> Mingi - Rocket  
> Wooyoung - Nova  
> Jongho - Bangpaje (it means Seawall)
> 
> If you have any questions or want to know anything specific, hop on over to my tumblr, I'm happy to answer any question you can throw at me, or write little scenarios in this universe!


	6. Chapter 6

Hongjoong stood proud and tall as he watched out the shuttle bay’s clear shielded entrance, staring out into space. He idly reached up, fixing one of the beaded portions of his hair to hang over his shoulder, the small end trinket of a dagger glinting above his gold sigil where his nametag would be, a stylized circular stormcloud that looked like an eye in place of a name. Next to him on his left was Wooyoung, jumpsuit top tied around his waist to reveal his white tank top beneath, his dual pulse pistols resting easily at his slim hips, slightly hidden by the hanging sleeves. His slender arms were crossed over his chest, dark eyes also focused with a glare where the arriving Federation shuttle would be parked. 

To Hongjoong’s right was Seonghwa, standing tall and regal as always, dressed properly in his well tailored jumpsuit that had silver trimmings along the collar and shoulders, a small pin of a golden laurel surrounding a red circle placed where his name would have been. At Seonghwa’s side was a large case, nearly the height of Mingi, and he was very certain Seonghwa had gotten it from their weapons expert’s more experimental section of the armory. 

“Here they come.” Hongjoong said as _Illusion_ alerted him, hand going to his hip. He adopted a bored expression while the Federation shuttle flew over the bigger ship, leveling off and then entering the hangar, landing in the spot where  _ Wave _ should have been. The silver haired captain sneered at the thought of his missing shuttle, hand clenching on the hidden set of knives at his hip. 

“Nice shuttle build, I’m sure with a new paint job it’d suit us.” Seonghwa said idly, the smallest smirk flitting on his placid face. 

Hongjoong grinned then, always enjoying when his second spoke his thoughts out loud like that. “I think Minkyway and Kit get to paint this one, since we sprayed  _ Wave _ .” he replied playfully. 

“As long as we get our lift fixed so we can paint the ceiling too, I’ll give up marking the shuttle this time.” Wooyoung chimed in. 

“Pup told me you were very concerned at it’s lack of color when your head was addled, I promise to get the lift fixed.” Hongjoong teased the violet haired male. 

Wooyoung raised his chin, pouting. “Well it’s important! It’s so boring.” he huffed. 

“As adorable as you both are, here they come.” Seonghwa said, straightening up as the side door of the shuttle hissed open, hands folding neatly in front of him, for all the world looking like he was politely inviting guests to his home. 

Hongjoong turned his gaze towards the opening ramp, eyes narrowing as two security officers exited, immediately pointing rifles at them. Then came Mingi and Yeosang, Mingi leaning heavily on Yeosang. Hongjoong’s rage built even further when he saw the new bruises on the tall weapons expert, and a thin line of blood from a wound on the small medic’s neck. Yeosang was made to stop between the two security officers, and he seemed about to rush them when the last man exited the shuttle.

  
  
“Let them go, I’m sure the medic wants to treat his poor shipmate.” He said, and Yeosang didn’t even pause, all but hauling Mingi along, the tall redhead keeping up as well as he could. 

Hongjoong had to give Wooyoung credit, he watched Yeosang go but he didn’t try to follow him, the violet haired male staying put and refocused his attention on their invaders. Hongjoong took a quick breath, before stepping forward with every bit of swagger he could muster. 

“Commander Avalon. I’d say welcome but you’re not.” He tilted his head to the side, his polite smile turning into a more feral grin. “What makes you think you wouldn’t die showing up here?” 

Avalon offered a small smile in return, hand coming up to stop his security officers from aiming their rifles at the approaching pirate. “Because I have four Federation cruisers tracking my vitals, they stop and you get blown out of existence.” he replied easily. 

Hongjoong looked thoughtful. “Mm, that would do it I suppose. How about you dismiss your goons there and you can discuss whatever it is you worked so hard to get me here to discuss.” 

Avalon looked at his officers. “I’d like to offer Lieutenant Kash here as an assistant for your medic, actually. We treated Mister Song a bit too strongly, it’s the least I can do.” 

Hongjoong quickly weighed the options in his mind, he could feel Seonghwa’s disapproval behind him but it was a good idea to split these bastards up. If Jongho and Wooyoung were there this so-called assistant wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything. “Lieutenant.” He said finally, looking at which officer reacted, eyes burning into the leftmost guard as they stepped forward. “Please follow my quartermaster to the med-bay.” He moved his hand out to gesture at Wooyoung. 

To Wooyoung’s credit, he managed not to look surprised at the sudden dismissal, giving a small flourishing bow as he was introduced. “C’mon lughead.” he said as he turned to lead the way out of the hangar. 

The officer hesitated, but followed after the violet haired man when Avalon gave him a nod. Watching them go, the Commander looked to his last officer. “Go ahead and remain on the shuttle. I’ll be perfectly safe. They wouldn’t dare risk this ancient trash heap.” He sneered as he looked around, taking in the hideously bright painted walls. 

“Yes sir.” The other officer headed back onto the shuttle, the door hissing shut and leaving Avalon alone with Hongjoong and Seonghwa. 

Hongjoong looked at the shuttle, then at the Commander, raising a brow. He couldn’t believe the brazen attitude of this man, Avalon seemed to think he had him at every disadvantage. He offered another polite smile and a bow. “Well then, Commander?” he motioned with a wide sweep of his arm, turning to lead the way towards the common room, feeling Seonghwa slip behind the Fed, leaving that huge case pointed at the shuttle where it sat. 

The silver haired captain took a small breath as he led the way into where the kitchen was, glancing around to make sure it was empty, before turning back around, leveling the Fed with his most fierce look, arms crossing over his chest. “Alright, Avalon. What is it that you want?” 

\---

“Yeosang!”

“Mingi!” 

Jongho and Yunho called out at once when quite suddenly their missing crewmates appeared in the door of the med-bay, both leaping from their seats. Yunho darted forward to relieve the small blond of his very large burden, taking Mingi’s weight and gently helping him over to a bed to lay down. He then began to unzip the hurting redhead's jumpsuit, grimacing as more and more injuries were revealed while he undressed the other down to his pants. 

“I’m gonna kill them.” He growled angrily. 

“Be angry later, tell me what’s going on now.” Yeosang said sharply, not missing a beat as he raised his hand and from the wall shot six small drones, the same Jongho had used the other day on Wooyoung. 

Four drones quickly moved to Mingi, the tall male holding still as they began doing their scans, while the other two darted to San and began doing much the same. Yeosang walked forward into the center of the room, holoprojectors lighting up around him in a circle and he spun, tapping this and twisting that, eyes flickering and lighting up an ethereal glowing green as he let the information his med-bay could give him pour into and through his mind much the same way the captain or San spoke to  _ Illusion _ . 

“Jongho you did well with San. He’s on track to be awake in the next thirty minutes.” He said finally, eyes flicking to the information the drones were giving him about Mingi. “Mingi, try not to move.” he said suddenly. 

“What?” Mingi looked confused, thankfully holding still now that he could actually lay down and he didn’t move as one of the drones came down and suddenly grabbed his nose with it’s little arms, snapping the delicate cartilage back in place. The redhead grimaced, whining. “A little more warning, Stardust.” he huffed, forcing himself not to reach up and rub over his sore face. The drone fluttered up and then brought back a nanite soaked bandage, placing it over the bridge of his nose carefully before floating up at his forehead to tend to cuts and wounds and bruises around his hairline. 

“Sorry.” Yeosang replied, very much not sounding sorry. “Broken collar bone, lacerations, concussion.” He huffed. “I’m going to space that Asshole.” finally his eyes turned blue once more, and he looked over at Jongho. “What happened here?” he pointed at San’s monitors and the huge spike in his adrenaline and heart rate. 

Jongho leaned back against San’s bed, looking at the sleeping dark haired youth. “He woke up and panicked because of the nerve damage making him blind. Said he thought we’d throw him off the ship because he felt he was useless.” he looked back, fringe hanging over his eyes in that way he liked to use to hide his emotions. “I had to sedate him.” 

Yeosang grimaced, waving his hand to clear the monitors around him, moving to Jongho and squeezing his shoulder. “You did the right thing. I’m proud of you.” he smiled gently. 

“I told him all those lectures you gave us had at least sunk into one of us.” Yunho called over, still standing beside Mingi, not about to let go of his death grip on Mingi’s left hand, their fingers interlaced. 

Yeosang smiled at that, squeezing Jongho’s shoulder again. “He’s right, you always were the best student.” 

“I’m wounded, I thought I was the best.” Wooyoung’s voice from the door had Yeosang jerking like a shot. 

He lunged for his best friend, Wooyoung meeting him with a small sprint step and wrapping his arms tightly around the blond. The violet haired male muttered softly into matted blond locks as he just held Yeosang, hand running up and down the other’s back soothingly. 

Jongho smiled as he watched the two reunite, but his dark gaze landed on the shadow behind Wooyoung and he bristled, hand sliding to the pulse pistol at his side in obvious threat. “Wooyoung.” he called out sharply. 

Wooyoung looked up in confusion, having forgotten what he had been actually supposed to be doing when Yeosang had collided with him. “Oh. Yeah, uh Cap sent one of the lugheads here to help. Like we’d let him.” he snorted, moving to let Yeosang see but immediately taking the medic’s hand tightly. 

The security officer stepped in, scanning over the room. The mask over his visor made it difficult to see his eyes, but when their head turned and took in Jongho, the officer froze and it was very obvious he was staring. Suddenly he put his rifle against his leg, letting it hook onto it’s magnetic holsters, pulling off his helmet fast, a word coming fast and in utter shock. “Jongho?” 

Jongho tensed as he stared at the Fed. The man was older than him by about six years, olive skin and brown eyes set in a round face, black hair military short with shaved sides. It took Jongho a minute to identify him, but when he did a sudden relief flowed through him like a tidal wave. “Chinhae.” he replied with a growing wide smile. 

The Fed grinned, looking honestly excited to see the red haired man. “You can call me Kash. I can’t believe you’re here!"

Jongho looked equally stunned and pleased. "I'm shocked you are here as well. How? It's good to see you, despite the circumstances." 

Chinhae snorted a laugh. "When I found out what kind of ship we were going to rendezvous on I had hoped it would be you, not that I want your companions harmed for a reunion." 

“Uh. Jongho?”

  
  
Yunho’s concerned voice flittered into Jongho’s ear and made him realize what he was doing. Or wasn't doing, really. 

“Apologies! Chinhae, er, Kash is one of my informants.” Jongho said, smiling shyly as he admitted it. “This is my crew.” he waved his hand over the collection of men now in the med-bay. 

Kash smiled at them, not at all bothered by the distrustful glares he was receiving. “Nice to meet you all. Well, in person at least.” he gave a small wave. 

“Kash and I went to the academy together, he almost left with me but his family needed the money when we were going to defect.” Jongho explained further. “He’s been sending me information ever since.” 

“I specialize in mostly space lane locations, which leads me to apologizing profusely about all of this.” Kash bowed low. “I didn’t know, I swear Jongho. I’m so sorry.” 

Jongho frowned at that, shaking his head. “Something tells me we were being tracked, I checked our information trails and they’re clean, so I think they were actively seeking out the captain and  _ Illusion _ through other methods.” 

Kash straightened back up. “I think so as well, I checked on my end and nothing’s been traced or caught in our transfers.” He looked apologetically towards Mingi, then at San. “The Commander hasn’t told anyone what he’s doing. This is all so below black I don’t even think our intelligence agency knows what’s going on.” 

Yeosang had moved to continue treating Mingi, putting him in a fishbowl gel helmet after popping a breathing device into his mouth. He frowned as he listened, eyeing over Mingi’s vitals as if expecting them to be worse than they were. “How is he able to operate with four Federation ships like this?” he finally asked as he looked back at the Lieutenant. 

Kash shook his head “I have no idea, I do have crew manifests though.” he dug into one of his pockets, offering a small data disc out to Jongho. “In case this helps somehow.” 

Jongho took it, nodding gratefully. “I’ll wait to use it on a secure padd so the information can’t spread.” and so if anything was on it, it wouldn’t spread to  _ Illusion _ , he thought silently to himself. 

“Don’t...know what..talking about..” San’s slurred voice mumbled out suddenly, causing everyone to look at the navigator. 

“San?” Wooyoung moved to the bed, hoping to see the other awake, but he looked at Yeosang in confusion. “He’s asleep still.”

“Loyalists have looked for a long time...Osok system.” San mumbled again, head shifting on the pillow but he still seemed very unconscious. 

Yeosang frowned, quickly moving over to the bed, looking over the scans, his drones hovering and running quick diagnostics. “His nanites are coming back online, it looks like he’s tapped into  _ Illusion  _ again.” he said, eyes widening in realization. “Oh! He did this before! When we first introduced the nanites to his system, when he was asleep he’d tap into the open comms in different common rooms. I was monitoring him for the first week, and he would repeat whole conversations as they were relayed.”

“Wait, so who’s he listening to?” Yunho asked in confusion. 

“Captain and Asshole, I imagine.” Yeosang said, biting out the curse as he glared into nothing. 

“Can’t risk...not their fight.” San mumbled, tone twisting just a bit to mimic Hongjoong, before suddenly switching to Seonghwa’s softer vocal pattern, “It’s none of our business, you have nothing on us.” 

“I feel awkward listening to this.” Jongho frowned nervously. 

“I mean, they’re gonna tell us about it once the Feds leave anyway.” Yunho replied, arms crossing over his chest as he leaned against Mingi’s bed. 

“Uh...about that.” Wooyoung said idly, glancing at Kash. “How do you feel about small spaces and being punched in the face?” 

Kash blinked, raising a brow. “I’m not a fan of either, why?” 

Wooyoung sighed “Just remember that I’m actually sorry, and I owe you a drink.” and then he hauled off and slammed his fist hard into the side of the Fed’s head. 

Kash dropped with a grunt, looking up blearily, but one more punch from the lilac haired boy had put him out cold. Wooyoung shook his hand as he stood up, looking at Yunho. “Alright, let’s move. Yeosang, tell me when that conversation San’s repeating seems like it’s about to end.” 

“Hey! What’s happening?!” Jongho moved to go to Kash’s prone form, but was stopped by Yunho who had moved over and picked the unconscious Fed up. 

“We’re gonna throw him into an escape pod, we’ll launch him out before we leave, one of the Fed ships can grab him and that commander guy.” Yunho grinned wickedly. “They’re not about to get away with what they did to Mingi and Yeosang, and we want that shuttle. Captain’s orders.” 

Jongho frowned, eyes narrowing. “Why wasn’t I included in this plan?” he growled. 

“Because you needed to stay and take care of San, and Yeosang and Mingi when we got them back. Didn’t know Stardust would be up and ready to heal the universe.” Wooyoung replied soothingly, head tilting to the side as he studied Jongho’s face. “Be mad at us later, help us now?” he asked gently. 

Jongho clenched his fists, but nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “What do you need?” 

Wooyoung grinned at him, eyes sparkling dangerously. “Wanna set a bomb off?” 


	7. Chapter 7

Hongjoong moved into the common room of  _ Illusion _ , looking at the empty tables and comfortable long curled benches along the walls, wishing his crew were there to joke and play games and make the oppressive silence less so. The silver haired captain studied one of the joint murals, an ancient wooden ship in golds and reds on a violent sea with the backdrop of stars and a large moon in a crescent. The first image he and his original crew had added, Seonghwa, Wooyoung, and Yeosang had surprised him with the paints and they’d gotten to work immediately. 

“Is there anywhere in this hulking mess that isn’t garishly decorated?” Avalon’s voice was bored, condescending as the older man looked around at the walls. 

“I see no reason to dissuade my crew from their artistic talents. Unlike the Federation, I see creativity as a strength.” Hongjoong replied, turning to settle his sharp gaze on the invader. “Start talking.” 

Avalon smirked, offering a mocking bow before he glanced at Seonghwa, who had moved to one of the tables and was leaning against it. “I would rather discuss this alone, captain.”

“I’m sure you would. You can either start now or get off my ship.” Hongjoong replied, tone sharp with barely contained anger. 

The Commander sneered slightly, but acquiesced. “Fine. I have come with tidings from Anyang. I realize in your long escape away from your kingdom you’ve probably decided you don’t care, however those of us who still remember who you truly are would rather you serve your people once more.”

Here he paused, watching Seonghwa for any kind of response, but the tall dark haired man was practically a statue, those sharp grey eyes never leaving the older Federation officer’s face. Avalon finally looked back at Hongjoong. “You may have given up your throne, but you are Anyang’s crowned prince, and you are the only one who can do what I am about to explain.” 

As neither Hongjoong nor Seonghwa responded in any manner, Avalon continued. “The ancient prophecy of the Twin Moons came to pass one year ago. A map was revealed, star charts and coordinates. It leads directly in the Osok system.” 

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.” Hongjoong snorted. 

Seonghwa frowned faintly, finally speaking. “Yes it does. Whatever he wants in the Osok system, no Federation ship can get within two jumps of it. The Osoki hate the Federation, and their military might will destroy anything that comes near.” he tilted his head to the side. “Why Hongjoong?” 

Avalon sighed “Your second is correct, I nor any true loyalist can get near Osoki space. It’s not just that, the prophecy states only those of royal lineage can locate the object I seek. That, unfortunately, is you.” 

Hongjoong actually laughed at that, a barking bitter sound. “I gave up my line eight years ago. This ship was my parting gift from my father before I left, with the direct instructions to never return, and I haven’t. I want nothing to do with his war, your Federation, or your loyalist propaganda trying to say my father’s laws and slave labor forces are necessary for Anyang. If you want something, ask him, not me.” 

“Your father, the King, is Federation aligned and would be unable to journey to Osoki space either. At best they’d take him hostage, at worst they would murder him and the Anyang crown would fall into the hands of his advisors since he has no current heir.” Avalon grit his teeth. “I would not be giving you this information, or seeking you out at all, if there were any other way to accomplish this, but as it stands you are the only noble blooded Anyangi who can go and retrieve the Golden Herald.” 

Hongjoong shook his head “I have no reason to drag myself or my crew into this, I can’t risk their lives, this was never their fight and I will not allow it to become theirs.” 

“You have no right to bring this to him, and you have nothing on us that would make you think we would work for you.” Seonghwa added, tone low with the faintest tinge of annoyance. “You kidnapped our men and destroyed our shuttle, and you think for an instant our captain would help you find some object that no doubt strengthens either the Federation or his father?” 

Avalon paused, hazel eyes moving from Seonghwa to Hongjoong, before speaking once more. “If you do this, I will personally see that every single record your entire crew has will be cleared. Every charge of thievery, destruction of property...murder. All of it will be erased. For some of them that means being able to go home for the first time in years doesn’t it?” 

Hongjoong froze, his mind going to Yunho, Yeosang and Wooyoung. All three had varying degrees of Federation bans from their home planets, he knew Yeosang and Wooyoung especially missed their home even if they told him they would rather be on  _ Illusion _ . It was tempting, sorely tempting. The silver haired captain winced internally as he realized he’d waited too long to respond if the triumphant flash in Avalon’s hazel eyes meant anything. 

“All it would take is you finding the Herald. Once you bring it back to me everything is cleared, a fresh clean slate for you and your crew to ruin all over again. Your father has even agreed, that if you do this, he will remove the hunt mark from your head.” Avalon continued. 

Hongjoong paused once more, refusing to look away from the Commander, meeting his gaze steadily. “If I were to do it, do you have the coordinates and maps for me to use? I’ve never been to Osoki space and I would like to know what I’m getting into.” he said finally. 

Avalon reached into his pocket, pulling out a set of data chips. “These have everything the Federation knows on Osok, it’s people and these.” he held up another set. “Are what we know of the prophecy and what has been revealed.” he held them out in his palms. “Do we have an accord, captain?” 

Seonghwa hummed to himself, lazily raising his hand and from his fingers a sudden bolt of blue energy launched towards Avalon, spreading like a glowing net around the commander, locking the older man in place. “He really does like to talk doesn’t he?” his tone was lazy and unimpressed. 

Pushing off from where he had been, Seonghwa stalking forward and ripping the data chips from the frozen man’s hands, a demure smile crossing his angular face when he moved in front of the commander, lowering himself elegantly into a slight bend, peering into the other’s angry hazel eyes. “If only I could keep you here to teach you just what it means to harm what is mine.” he practically purred, low voice rumbling in his chest, sharp grey eyes slitting like a serpent. 

From far off a rumbling explosion was heard, the ship jolting just a little. Seonghwa looked away then, his smile turning more fond. “Ah, they’ve started. What were we doing with him?” he asked as he looked back at Hongjoong, eyes returning to normal. 

Hongjoong smiled then, stepping up beside his second. “I imagine Pup will be here shortly. Commander, I’ll decide on your offer shortly. Thank you for your kind replacement for the loss of our shuttle.” 

Avalon tried to speak, mouth frozen just like the rest of him. All he could do was shriek in muffled incoherency as he glared heavily at the small silver haired man in front of him. 

“Captain!” As if summoned, Yunho appeared, grinning like a maniac. “Are you finished? We’re ready to go when you are once I’ve got the trash in the pod.” he moved towards Avalon then, arms wrapping around the Commander’s midsection to heft him up. 

“I’ll go get us ready. Mars stay with him just in case?” Hongjoong waited for the nod from Seonghwa before strutting out of the common room towards the bridge. 

Seonghwa moved to help Yunho carry his unmoving burden, dumping the paralyzed Commander on top of the unconscious Lieutenant already in the sleek escape pod. The pod itself barely sealed, but was loaded where the torpedoes normally went with no trouble. 

“Ready to fire captain.” Yunho called up on the comms. 

_ “Jump in ten, fire at five.” _ Hongjoong called back, a quiet insane sounding laugh coming from the small man before the comms cut out that made Yunho shiver. 

“Haven’t heard him do that since San took over.” The blond snorted, glancing at Seonghwa. 

“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Seonghwa replied with a grin, reaching over Yunho to press the button and launch the escape pod out.

They both watched the mini-portal in front of them as the pod rocketed off towards the cruisers, before their view was swallowed by the blue of wormhole space. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's my birthday! Have some fluff. And a smidge of angst. But mostly fluff.

“Found it!” 

Wooyoung’s voice rang out from beneath the newly acquired shuttle, making Jongho pop his head out from the open doorway of the small craft, looking down. “Great, is it active?”

Wooyoung’s lavender head popped out from beneath the left engine, grin wide as he brought his hand up, holding up a twelve inch black case that had some severed wires sticking out either side. “Yeah I think so, the internal circuit is active.” he replied, pushing himself out fully from beneath the shuttle. He folded his legs to sit cross-legged and began to look over his removed shuttle piece. “These tracers are getting more and more impossible to tamper with.” he grumbled, fingers dancing along the smooth casing, hunting for the seam. 

“Unfortunately every time anyone messes with them they learn from it.” Jongho smirked, heading back inside and picking back up his padd. “I’ve almost got the system wiped, do we know what we’re naming it yet?” 

“Not yet, I think it’s Yeosang’s turn to name it? Hongjoong named  _ Wave _ and Seonghwa named  _ Horizon _ so it’s his turn next.” Wooyoung confirmed, grinning “And when we end up blowing up another one it’ll be my turn.” 

“No more explosions.” Jongho called out dryly, snorting. “I still can’t believe that worked, how long did it take you guys to set that up?” 

Wooyoung’s grin turned sharper, eyes sliding over to where a massive rail gun was now embedded in the spot that the big box Seonghwa had left used to be. “Seonghwa had it set up when I got here. I hope Mingi didn’t want it somewhere else because I don’t know how to get those magnetic feet to unlatch.” He paused, frowning faintly at the burn marks around the open entryway of the shuttle, the mangled original hatch leaning against the shuttle’s hull to the left of the hole. “I hope Jup is okay with us needing to retrofit that door though, I didn’t mean to use that much explosive.” 

Jongho chuckled as he continued to fuss with things on his padd. “It got the door open, which was the important part. I do feel a little sorry for those officers though.” he grimaced as he remembered when the pilot and security officer poured from the shuttle with their rifles, firing at Wooyoung and the rail gun, but it was far too late. The lavender haired male had fired the massive weapon, the bolt going through both the Feds and sending them flying out the force field of their open cargo bay. 

“Mm, unfortunately it was necessary, we couldn’t take them with us.” Wooyoung replied quietly. “We can ask Hongjoong if we can give them a little ceremony if you want?” he had no love for the Federation or any of its members, but he wasn’t about to deny Jongho his past. 

“They’ll get an official one when they’re retrieved from where we put them.” Jongho replied finally, frowning as he put his padd down. He moved to the entryway, sitting down on the hard metal floor of the shuttle. “I hope Chinhae will be alright.” he said quietly. 

Wooyoung paused in his fussing, brow furrowing when he looked up and studied the other male’s face. “I’m sorry I punched your friend.” 

Jongho blinked, far-away-look fading as he looked at Wooyoung in confusion. “I’m not. I know why you did it, and you kept him alive.” he nodded sharply. “Not just for me, but for all of us. He’s not my only contact but he’s one of the best we have. He’s my friend and he’s useful to us, but you guys are my family. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.” 

Wooyoung hadn’t moved as Jongho spoke, eyes widening just a little at the younger male’s strong words. It was rare the other spoke so openly about his feelings, and despite Wooyoung’s knowledge that the redhead would probably hate it, he raised himself swiftly to his feet and lunged at him, wrapping him in a tight hug. 

Jongho tensed, arms going out to the side as he found himself with Wooyoung practically in his lap. He sighed, eyes rolling, wrapping his arms around the other male and squeezing him tight. “Stop getting overly emotional.” he muttered, but he didn’t let go until Wooyoung pulled back. 

The lavender haired male grinned at him, before leaning forward and planting a kiss on Jongho’s forehead. “I have to be emotional for all of us.” He replied cheekily. 

Jongho snorted, reaching up to rub at his forehead dramatically, playfully shoving the other away. “Get back to work.” he huffed, but he couldn’t stop the small smile that lit up his face as he watched the other saunter away back to the tracer box.

\---

Mingi watched Yeosang, blinking slowly as his exhaustion threatened to pull him under. In fact the small blond medic had threatened him twice with a sedative if he didn’t sleep, but Mingi couldn’t rest as he watched the other move around San’s bed, his little drones fluttering here and there, Yeosang’s eyes glowing an ethereal green. He seemed lost to whatever the diagnostics were telling him.    
  
Mingi frowned, pushing himself up a bit on the bed, grimacing at the stickiness still on his neck and behind his ears from the residue of the nanite gel that had worked to heal his concussion and most of the cuts, burns and bruises around his head. He had been allowed to rinse his skin and hair before being forced back into the bed, but it hadn’t been enough to get all of it off.

“What do you hear?” He asked suddenly, deep voice rough, it made him grimace. 

Yeosang startled, looking over at him, the ethereal green in his eyes fading to his normal blue. He frowned immediately. “You’re supposed to be asleep.” he admonished. 

“So are you, but here you are.” Mingi shot back, raising a brow, holding the other’s gaze until at last Yeosang’s shoulders dropped. 

“I can’t. Not until San wakes up.” The blond admitted quietly. He moved to sit on one of the rolling stools beside Mingi’s bed, keeping his front towards San’s bed so he could watch him. 

“Mmhmm. And I can’t sleep til you sleep. So, talk to me. What do you hear?” Mingi said triumphantly. 

Yeosang fell silent, looking thoughtful. “It’s hard to describe.” he started finally. “When I was in my university we studied systems like this, the nano-connections were experimental then, imagine my surprise when I found out the ship I’d decided to join had the systems installed. Hongjoong says it sounds like singing, and I agree with him. I heard what he hears one time, and he has it set to this chaotic buzz, it’s like every system is chattering at him at the same time. I have no idea how he can listen to anything but he says he understands it all.” 

Mingi smiled at that, shaking his head. “Cap thinks faster than any of us, it’s no wonder if he can hear all that and make sense of it.” he chuckled.

Yeosang smiled as well, nodding in agreement. “I can only hear the med-bay though. When we tested them I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to be distracted by any other systems. I can’t hear the outward sensors, or the weapons systems, or even the common rooms like he and San can. In here though, they...sing to me. It’s kind of like having a thousand medical terms thrown at me at once, but because I know all of them I can pick up the ones that need focus...like conducting an orchestra.” as he spoke he raised his hand, eyes lighting up green once more and he traced his fingers down, soft green threads coming from his fingertips. “It’s sometimes overwhelming, but it only took me a few months to learn how to turn them down. They’re mostly dormant when no one is in here too. I can’t imagine how hard it is to quiet them when it’s the whole ship.” 

Mingi watched the green swirls in the air, he had always felt slightly uncomfortable that the air system on the ship had millions of tiny reactive nanites that would go into their lungs, but he knew they would immediately dissolve and were just made to react to those who could connect with them, mainly Hongjoong, Yeosang, and San. “Jup once offered me the weapons system nanites. I could control the weapons systems anywhere.” he snorted. “I said no, it’s...too much.” he looked towards the unconscious navigator, frowning. “I didn’t know something like that could happen to them, or you.” 

Yeosang looked over San thoughtfully, head tilting to the side. “It’s something for us to study and figure out safeguards against, once Kit and Hongjoong are healed fully. Though that does bring me to something.” his gaze landed on Mingi again, a small smirk lighting up his handsome features. “You translated a Federation console fast enough to read what they were about to do, and translated that into what it could theoretically do to San. How?” 

Mingi’s eyes widened at the question before he could catch himself and school his expression. “Oh! That. I uh, well you heard what Asshole said, I used to work with Federation equipment. It wasn’t difficult.” he replied quickly, unable to keep the uncomfortable expression off his face, not quite able to meet Yeosang’s penetrating gaze. 

“Mmhmm. Mingi you know you’re safe here right? We wouldn’t ever judge you for your past. You’ve never judged us for ours.” The blond’s deep voice had pitched to an all time comforting low, trying to coax the fidgeting redhead on the bed to talk. 

“I know, Stardust. I just...it’s…” Mingi jerked when sudden alarms went off, interrupting his train of thought immediately, he nearly fell off the bed in trying to get ready for whatever was about to happen. 

Yeosang grabbed him, managing to hold him tight until the initial panic faded, breathing coming out fast from his own adrenaline at Mingi's response. “Sorry! Sorry, that’s the alarms for when San’s close to consciousness.” he apologized sheepishly. 

“Did they have to be that loud?” Mingi grumbled, hand going over his chest, sure his heart was about to pound through his ribs. 

“I wanted to make sure I’d hear them if I had passed out.” Yeosang replied, standing to head over to the prone navigator’s bed, turning the alarms off and watching the other’s face. 

Eyelids flickered and the soft peaceful expression on the slumbering male’s face twisted to one of minor confusion, and then San opened his eyes. Yeosang braced himself for another reaction like the one Jongho had described, but this time San didn’t move, milky white eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. The blond medic frowned at the normally very active navigator’s reaction until he noticed how tense the other was, the faint trembling in his arms and the way his hands clenched. San was waiting and had no idea if anyone was near him, he realized. 

“Good morning.” He made sure to keep his tone normal, trying to pull off flippant.

“Yeosang.” San practically sobbed, left hand immediately lashing out and grabbing onto the blond’s jumpsuit, sitting up quickly as he tried to just latch onto him. 

Yeosang smiled at that, letting himself be pulled forward by the other’s tight grip, placing his hand over the fist clenched into his outfit. “Hey Kit, on a scale of one to ten how are you feeling?”

San laughed wetly, not at all ashamed of the tears in his eyes as he just held onto the other. “One being dead and ten being perfect, probably a three.” he replied, head twisting to the left, ear cocking up as if he were trying to hear something. “Where’s Mingi?” he asked, sudden anxiety in his tone. 

“Mingi is across from you.” The redhead supplied before Yeosang could reply. 

The reaction was instant, San collapsed back on the bed, sighing softly as his anxiety and fear faded to a more manageable level. The navigator reached up to wipe away a few stray tears from his eyes, looking miserable. “Sangie how long is this gonna last?” he asked timidly while motioning at his face, afraid of the answer. 

Yeosang studied the never ending reams of data he had on San’s monitors, not wanting to give the other hope if he wasn’t accurate. “Probably two to three days.” he replied finally. “It won’t be forever, I promise.” he added, voice firm. 

San relaxed even more at that, sighing. “I don’t remember much about waking up the first time, I remember Jongho being here and I remember not being able to see. Is everyone okay?” 

Yeosang’s eyes flared green as he quickly made a note of San’s lack of memory of him repeating the conversations from the day before. Mingi watched him, taking over the conversation so San wouldn’t feel awkward at the growing silence. 

“Yeah, the only ones injured were me and you, and Hongjoong to a smaller extent. Hongjoong is piloting right now until you’re up and ready, and I think Wooyoung and Jongho are getting our new shuttle prepped.” he told the other, reaching over for his water to take a long drink, soothing the scratchy sharpness in his throat. 

“I can hear Hongjoong piloting.” San grimaced. “It’s always so loud when he has the systems under his control, I don’t know how he does it. It gives me a headache.” he rubbed his temple, staring sightlessly towards the far corner by Mingi’s bed. “When did we get a new shuttle?”

“When Commander Asshole dropped us off, he thought he could bully his way onto _ Illusion _ and make the captain do whatever he wanted.” Yeosang finally rejoined the conversation with a scoff. “Mingi knew what sort of weapon they’d used and was panicked to get to you especially.” he reached out to ruffle San’s hair comfortingly. 

San leaned into the touch, fingers clenching into the static fabric and padding of the bed beneath him. “I still don’t really understand what happened. There was some kind of blaring warning and then..” he remembered a blinding white and then agony that had ripped through every fiber of his being. “It felt like everything inside of me caught on fire, like I was being torn apart.” his voice was low and soft. 

Yeosang ran his fingers through the navigator’s dark locks, wincing when the memory of that glittering white glow, a million dazzling white lights of the sensors on  _ Ilusion’s _ hull came to him, and every single one of them had been a tiny explosion inside the body of the one before him. It was honestly a miracle he had survived, not that Yeosang would ever tell San that. 

“They used an experimental weapon.” Mingi said quietly, ignoring the sudden look of concern thrown at him by Yeosang. Instead he watched San’s face, and when the navigator cocked his head to the side curiously he continued. “It’s a modified EMP, instead of destroying the systems outright it knocks them out of commission, hence EDP or electro disruption pulse.” 

“So...it's made to disrupt the outward sensors?” San asked, eyes squinting in concentration while he pieced what Mingi said together with what had happened.

“Mmhmm, and because you’re basically a sensor conduit when you’re navigating, all that went right into you.” Mingi sighed softly. “I knew when I saw it, what would happen, I’m sorry I couldn’t stop it, Kit.” 

“None of that.” Yeosang said sharply before San could reply. The blond huffed before continuing. “Minkyway literally tore a console apart to stop them from firing the first time, he took out an entire weapons system. The only reason they got that shot off was because a whole other ship  _ we weren’t even on  _ fired.” 

San’s mouth shut, and he furrowed his brows, before a small grin slid across his pale features. “An entire Fed cruiser weapons system, just for me? That’s like a love confession.” he teased. 

Mingi flushed and scoffed, arms crossing over his broad chest. “It’s not like I tore through a bulkhead, it’s all plastifilm and data chips.” 

“It was very impressive, he held off four security officers too.” Yeosang added, smirking at Mingi’s bright red face near matching his hair. 

“That sounds impressive, I wouldn’t have wanted to be there to witness it but it sounds really cool.” San finally broke into a small laugh, though it faded a bit too fast for Yeosang’s liking. The blind navigator turned his head in the general direction he knew the blond medic was, frowning in thought. “Yeosang, do I need to stay much longer? I’d like to be in my quarters if possible.” 

Yeosang almost wanted to refuse outright, he didn’t like the idea of the dark haired youth going into a solo room far away from his medi drones and his monitoring, but he couldn’t give a reason other than his own protective instincts to say no. San was practically fine, except for being blind, and he probably knew his own room enough to maneuver around until his sight came back. “Let me monitor you for a few more hours, but then I can call Pup and have him help you to your room.” he decided finally. 

“Me too?” Mingi asked hopefully. 

The blond snorted “Everyone’s trying to abandon me, I see.” He teased them, but he nodded at Mingi’s request. “Same as San, a few more hours of monitoring and then you can both go _ rest. _ No going to the armory, no going to the bridge, room rest for twenty four full hours. Then both of you can check in with me to see if I can clear you back to tasks.” 

“Yes sir.” Mingi gave a lazy salute, smiling as he settled in to rest his eyes until his few hours was up. 

Yeosang smiled as he watched him relax into a sort of nap state, looking back at San, the smile fading when he saw the navigator staring listlessly to the side. “San?” he questioned gently. 

“Mm?” the dark haired youth turned his head so his face was angled towards the ceiling. “Oh, sorry Stardust. Yeah that’s fine.” he forced a smile, before closing his eyes and doing what Mingi had done unknowingly. 

Yeosang frowned, Jongho’s explanation of San’s panic before the youngest had had to knock the navigator out rattling in his mind. He carefully put it to the side for now, moving towards his desk. He sat down, putting his arms down and then his head on top of them, setting a reminder to wake up in a few hours to dismiss his patients. If they got to sleep, he could too. 


	9. Chapter 9

_ Be mad later, help me now? _

It was a statement Jongho had never really heard before until he’d joined the crew of  _ Illusion.  _ At first he had felt angry when he’d heard it, it had been directed at Mingi when Yunho had taken three experimental weapons from the armory without telling the redhead, and had completely destroyed them. Jongho had thought the blond was completely dismissing the other’s feelings, and he had been about to defend him when Mingi had given him a quick look and a headshake, and had agreed to Yunho’s words. Be mad later, help me now. 

After they had blown their way through a Fed cargo ship and had slid into wormhole space with their hanger and storage full of loot, Mingi had asked Jongho to come with him. The young ex-Fed had been confused, but he followed Mingi into engineering, surprised when Yunho stood there looking truly apologetic. What Jongho had thought was just a throwaway statement to minimize Mingi’s feelings in favor of the mission had turned out to be anything but. Yunho had gently apologized for not telling the weapons expert what he had planned to do, and thanked him for waiting to talk about it. He’d then offered to pay for anything he could to replace what he’d destroyed. Jongho had been equally surprised at Mingi who had nodded and said he accepted the apology, and that he’d let Yunho know what could be replaced and what it would cost. 

The ex-Fed had thought it was a one off between two very good friends, but he found it was absolutely the way of the entire ship. He had watched similar conversations happen from himself all the way to Hongjoong, and every single time after the crew had been safe it was always discussed, either between those just involved or an entire crew conversation if it was big enough. It had floored him how fiercely the crew worked to make sure no hard feelings were left, there was no room for resentment or quietly stewing when it came to them. Finally he asked Yeosang about when they had been working together in the med-bay. 

“It’s something Hongjoong decided we would do when we first became a crew.” The blond had replied. “He said he had always been told to focus on a mission, or task, but there was never that emotional release after, of discussing what had hurt someone else. He didn’t want us breaking into emotional conversations in the middle of fights though, so he said if we invoke focus first talk after, we were bound to it.” Yeosang smiled at him. “Whatever it is, we’ll talk about it after, even if everything is forgiven already. It’s been very useful in holding us accountable for our actions while also being able to succeed in survival.” 

When San had come aboard, Jongho had gotten to witness someone else learn it. San had been particularly difficult to get to follow it, not that he had issues apologizing or offering reparations, but he kept his feelings deep. Almost deeper than Jongho himself, if the ex-Fed could admit his own shortcomings. San did not hold grudges, but if something truly hurt him he buried it deep and refused to discuss it, ignoring it and getting angry when others tried to bring up what had been done with him. Jongho had pulled him aside one day, and had explained what Yeosang had told him. He had explained it with his own insight too, how it wasn’t just for the person being apologized to, how it helped the person apologizing, how it helped the crew as a whole if they were open about it. San had seemed to understand after that, and now so many years later he was as open as any of them when it came to their code. 

  
  


When they had been working on the shuttle, Jongho had been expecting a conversation with Wooyoung because he had invoked the code, as it were. When they hadn’t, he hadn’t felt terribly upset, after all he’d forgiven him for punching Chinhae and he had understood why they hadn’t told him the plan, they hadn’t needed to discuss that part. However as he came out of his bathroom to get ready for bed, he had nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Seonghwa leaning against his door. 

“Seonghwa! What...what are you doing here?” The redhead had taken quick breaths to calm himself, staring at the second-in-command in confusion. 

Seonghwa gave him a small smile that crinkled the corners of his grey eyes. “I came to apologize.” he replied simply. 

Jongho stared at him, trying to remember exactly when Seonghwa had said anything worth apologizing for, and then it came to him. Wooyoung hadn’t invoked those words for just himself, he hadn’t made the plan. Seonghwa had. This didn’t happen often, rarely did Seonghwa and Hongjoong give them direct orders like that, but as Jongho figured it out, he relaxed a bit. He fixed his robe, tying the soft sash comfortably around his waist, and then he moved to his bed to sit down. There was a role he would play, and though he wanted to tell Seonghwa there was no need, he knew they had to do this properly. 

Seonghwa watched him as he moved, waiting until Jongho had settled before he began. “I am sorry for telling Yunho and Wooyoung not to explain our plan to you. It was a call I made when I had contacted you in the med-bay. Your stress levels, to me, were unacceptable, and I couldn’t in good conscience add anything else.” he sighed. “I shouldn’t have made that call for you.” 

Jongho put his hand up, shaking his head. “Seonghwa I already forgive you for it, you needed to make that call. I appreciate you apologizing, and I did feel like I had been left out of something important, but I also understand why.” he paused, considering the tall male. Reparations were always part of this, and he realized what he wanted more than anything. “Would you stay with me, until I fall asleep?” 

Seonghwa looked a little surprised, and then impossibly soft, pushing himself off the door and moving over to the bed. He carefully toed off his boots and waited for Jongho to get comfortable, laying down beside him. “You haven’t asked any of us to do this in a long time.” he murmured, fingers moving to brush through Jongho’s fringe, smoothing his hair down gently before wrapping his arms loosely around the other. 

Jongho settled into the light grip, sighing in contentment as he felt the tenseness fall. “I don’t normally need it. Today was just…” San’s words echoed in his mind, the sight of Mingi so injured, Chinhae smiling and then unconscious on the ground. He grimaced, snuggling more tightly into Seonghwa’s chest, silently asking for more. He felt safe, finally, the arms first loose now tightened fiercely around him, caging him until he could focus on nothing but the warmth of the body next to him. 

Seonghwa seemed to understand, speaking quietly, nonsense and silly stories of their past, keeping his voice low and quiet, barely above a whisper. Jongho listened desperately, letting his words drown out everything else until at last he fell asleep, blissfully dreaming of gentle times. A good payment for invoking their code, he decided in the morning when he glanced up at Seonghwa, who had fallen asleep curled protectively around him. He smiled, just resting his head back on the other’s chest to nap until he woke up too.    
  
\---

Hongjoong looked around the common room, curled in his chair with his legs pulled up comfortably, watching the others slowly file in. It had been three days since they’d gotten Yeosang and Mingi back, two days since Mingi had been cleared for his duties and had quickly disappeared into the armory to sort through his feelings, and one day since San’s eyes had at least returned to normal color even if the navigator still couldn’t see well. 

Said navigator was currently sitting on one of the benches along the wall, back turned to press into the corners where the walls met. Hongjoong understood, even though it hurt his heart to watch San sit there quietly. It was a safe place, anything potentially coming at the navigator had to come from the front. It was a survival tactic, something born from anxiety of expecting danger, and Hongjoong had enough of San’s snippets of background to know this was probably not the first time his navigator had ended up in that position while injured. 

Hongjoong had been about to get up to go over to San when Seonghwa seemed to materialize from nowhere, normally silent steps sharp on the deck below as the tall male approached. San’s head cocked, and he locked onto Seonghwa’s figure, tensing before seeming to identify whatever he was seeing to what he knew. There was a quiet murmur of the second-in-command’s low voice Hongjoong couldn’t understand, and then Seonghwa was sitting beside San, one arm out to let the lithe youth curl into his side, his free hand coming to soothingly run fingers through San’s messy hair. Only when San was settled did Seonghwa look at Hongjoong, offering him a small smile and a wink. 

The silver haired captain smirked, shaking his head before mouthing ‘thank you’. He had asked the others to show up in the next half hour, and Seonghwa didn’t want him to get curled around San and then have to pull away to make his speech. His second simply nodded in return, both turning their heads as they heard the noises that meant others were starting to filter down. 

“I’m just saying, you should make the magnetic coupling easier to detach!” Wooyoung’s voice was loudest, and as he came into view he was waving his arms dramatically.

Mingi came next, rolling his eyes but there was a quirk of a grin on his face that indicated he was deeply enjoying the conversation. “You don’t even know how those systems work. If they could easily detach it’d make the whole gun fly back every time it fired!” he huffed loudly back. 

“Yeah but then we wouldn’t have four giant squares of damage in the hangar!” Wooyoung shot back. 

“Well you should’ve used the base I built to attach it to.” Mingi replied smugly, grinning as he dodged the shove the lavender haired male tried to hit him with. 

“You two are children.” Jongho’s voice called petulantly, bumping between them to go take a seat near Hongjoong. 

Hongjoong offered him a small smile, relieved that the other seemed to have forgiven him for not filling him in on their plan. Jongho gave him a nod, and a small quirk at the corner of his mouth in a return smile, looking back at Wooyoung and Mingi bickering and adopting an exasperated expression. 

Yeosang drifted in next, carefully avoiding the argument going on and moving to sit near Seonghwa, one of his drones fluttering around his head before drifting off to buzz around San. San tensed when he heard it, but relaxed at a gentle word from the dark haired male hugging him, letting the drone scan him and then flutter back over to its owner. Yeosang’s eyes flickered green for a split second, and he relaxed from whatever he apparently heard. He finally looked at Hongjoong, offering him a nod and a smile.

Hongjoong smiled back, relaxing minutely, looking over when Yunho entered. 

“I got distracted.” the blond apologized, hurrying in to plant himself on one of the chairs, glancing at Wooyoung and Mingi who were still going at it. “Mingi.” he tilted his tone up in just enough of a whine to make it convincing. 

Mingi reacted immediately, looking over at Yunho in confusion, completely abandoning his argument and heading over to the blond. Yunho gave Hongjoong a quick conspiratorial grin as he held out his arm, motioning to continue his demand for touch and Mingi obliged, curling up next to him on the chair and wrapping his big arms around the engineer. 

Hongjoong took a breath as Yunho took care of the last of the noise, waiting for Wooyoung to sit down next to Yeosang before beginning. “So.” he started, immediately stopping as the words caught in his throat. This had been the secret he had carried for so long, the lying by omission he had done since he had met his crew, and even now when he’d built himself up to finally tell them, it was like he couldn’t get it to leave him. 

“You’re a prince, Asshole asked you to go after some kind of weird relic and you’ve decided to do it?” Yeosang offered, tone blunt and slightly amused. 

Hongjoong started, staring at him in shock. “What? How did...what?”

Yeosang shrugged “San talks in his sleep.” 

Hongjoong looked at San, who looked equally bewildered, before it clicked. He groaned, rubbing his face with his hand. “The nanites. Okay...okay so everyone knows?” he looked around at six nodding heads, Seonghwa not really reacting but Hongjoong didn’t expect him to. 

“Great, perfect. That takes care of that. Everyone in for it?” he asked finally. 

“As if you had to ask.” Wooyoung snorted, arms crossing over his chest. 

“Jup you’re ridiculous if you think any of us were going to sit this out.” Mingi added. 

“I appreciate it, but we’re going into an absolutely dangerous space. The Osok system is completely uncharted by most Federation maps. Even with what Avalon gave us we don’t have a lot of information.” Hongjoong eyed them all, trying to convey how serious he was about this. “I didn’t make this crew to have you all get involved in my past, or the history of my people. I want you all to think about it before you agree to-”

“Cap?” 

Hongjoong stopped, looking over at San in surprise. The dark haired navigator had never interrupted him before, not in the middle of an actual crew meeting. He glanced at Seonghwa, but his second merely raised a brow to see if he would allow it or not. It only took a second for him to decide, and he spoke up “Go ahead, San.” 

San shifted away from where he’d curled into Seonghwa, sitting up straighter as if trying to convey his own seriousness. “I know you’re offering us the chance to back out of this, and you’re right. It’s not what any of us agreed to when you offered us our place on the crew. There’s one thing, though, that I think we can all agree on that is going to make us all tell you we’re going with you no matter how much you try to scare us off. That one thing is you.” he paused, taking a small breath and then pressing on. “None of us would ever abandon you, not for danger, not for credits, not for any reason in the galaxy. You’re the reason we’re here, and you’re going to be the reason we go to Osok, and we’re going to be the reason you succeed in whatever you have to do.” he had finally run out of steam, shoulders drooping a bit as if his words had exhausted him. 

Hongjoong was floored, staring at San, then looking at the others. Jongho’s throat clearing caught his attention, and the crimson haired male shrugged. 

“He’s a hundred percent correct. So move past the large amount of your speech that’s trying to tell us how horrible this adventure might be to try and scare us off, and get to the plan you’ve made to get this done.” Jongho grinned at him. 

Hongjoong swallowed thickly around the lump in his throat, forcing the emotions and warmth he felt down, as well as the near overwhelming fear that the seven most important to him were now going to be going into unknown danger because of him. He couldn’t force them off the ship, well he could but he had to admit to himself that he wouldn’t. As much as he wanted them safe, the selfish part of him wanted them there, for him to rely on. He could respect their choices because as much as he feared for them, that desire to keep them with him would always triumph against even his most fervent concerns. 

“Alright.” He said barely above a whisper, before pushing himself out of his chair, straightening up to his full height and shaking off the doubts. He was their captain, and they had told him their decision. He would move forward. 

“Alright.” he repeated, his voice much firmer and more confident. “So this is what we know.” 

Hongjoong raised his hand, fingers flickering gold and the holo-projector lit up showing a solar system around a binary star pair. “This is the Osok system. Where we’re focused on is here.” he waved his hand again, and the map zoomed into a planet with rings and six moons. “This is Kathar, from what I’ve read it’s barely inhabited, though I couldn’t find out why. Breathable atmo, forests and mountains, but from what I understand there is extreme weather everywhere but the very center axis. Which leads me to the Anyangi part of all of this.” 

Another swipe of his hand and an ancient parchment came up, lots of very tiny faded writing in a language that was lost to time, with depictions of a woman in silver and blue armor with silvery hair holding a moon, and a dark haired male figure in crimson and golden armor holding a sun. From the moon and sun seemed to stream forth a river that wrapped around what looked like some kind of horn, wrapped in vines and flowers. The more alarming part was beneath the horn, a scene depicting what looked like a battlefield of dead and dying soldiers with many different colored banners on a cracked earthen base, their arms outstretched towards the horn. 

“According to this, or at least according to the translations, which have been hit or miss over the thousands of years, the Golden Herald was a gift from our God and Goddess, and it was said to grant the wielder immortality.” Hongjoong explained. “Not just for themselves, but for their people. A pure life in utopia, no one sick or dying, forever.” He grimaced “Apparently the Herald caused a great war between the ancient royal factions and some ancestor of mine stole it into the sky, never to be found again. Until, y’know, now.” 

Sighing, Hongjoong ran his fingers through his silvery hair, making it stand up wildly. “I guess a thousand years ago some Seer had made the prophecy of finding the Herald, but warned that it could only be translated during the year of the great alignment, only during the highest power of our sun.” he waved his hand dismissively. “Basically now, whatever. I never put a lot of stock into the power and mysticism of it all but I know this Herald existed, there’s actual history about the great war that happened, it’s what caused the ruling system that Anyang has today. The translation reads that between the place of sun and moon, where lights dazzle and screams deafen, you will find what you seek. Those with pact as blood must be who discover your Herald, or calamity will follow.” 

“Pact as blood...that sounds really weird.” Wooyoung wrinkled his nose, studying the scrolls as they hovered in front of everyone. “What would that even mean?”

Hongjoong frowned “I guess they’ve all decided they mean the pact that the warring tribes made, they all made some kind of blood pact to follow the ruling laws they all wrote out. It’s what Anyang follows now, with amendments and such as they come for the future.” 

“So why can’t one of the other leaders from the other tribes go? Why you?” Yunho asked, arms crossing over his chest in annoyance for his captain. 

“My father wouldn’t let them claim something like this, I doubt they even know what he’s done, despite what Avalon says. If one of his advisors tried to get the Herald he’d probably kill them.” Hongjoong snorted. “He likes his power, and he’s not doing something that might threaten it. He fully expects me to do this for him because he thinks I’m afraid of him.” his eyes narrowed. “So the real question is what do we do when we find it?” 

“Live forever with an insanely powerful relic?” Mingi suggested, laughing quietly as Yunho playfully punched his arm.

“Throw it into the nearest black hole?” Yeosang muttered. 

“I agree with Stardust, that thing should be in no one’s hands. Not if it’s as powerful as they say. I have my doubts and I imagine it’s some kind of powerful weapon or healing tool, but it should not be given to anyone, especially not your father or Anyang.” Seonghwa spoke up finally, all eyes turning to him. “Nearest black hole, overheat it in the reactor, anything that will destroy it.” he finished. 

Hongjoong nodded his agreement. “Plan is we go in under as much stealth cover as we can, if the Osoki military contacts us our ship is damaged and we’re requesting to land to fix it, no assistance necessary. We land, we find it, and we head somewhere near the outer rim and destroy it.” He hesitated, before taking a breath and powering on. “We find a new ship, and we keep going.” 

“What?” 

“Why?!”

“What do you mean?!”

Various different cries in levels of anger and shock erupted around him, and he held up his hands. “We can’t stay on  _ Illusion _ if they’re gonna track it, and they can. It’s Anyangi, and even though I’ve worked tirelessly to keep us from being traced...we’re too conspicuous. We have to survive their anger, and unfortunately to do that we’re going to have to do it on a new ship.” Hongjoong frowned. “I feel as much about it as you all do, this has been our home for so long…” he trailed off, looking down. 

“It’s where we’re safe...but I can still do my work on any ship you give us.” Jongho said suddenly. “My home is with you, and the others.” 

Wooyoung made a face “Gross. Way too sappy, Bangpaje.” 

Jongho snorted at him. “Well, every once in a while I can be the emotional one.” 

“We can discuss this later, we’ve got time.” Seonghwa suggested, grey eyes holding Hongjoong’s until the captain nodded. 

“I agree, we’ve got a lot of steps involved before then after all.” He smiled at them all, looking tired but happy with how everything had gone. “You’re all sure about this?” he had to ask one more time. 

“If you ask us again I’m going to throw you in one of my weapons boxes until we get to Osok.” Mingi grumbled good naturedly. 

Hongjoong laughed at that, shaking his head. “I’d like to see you try, Minkyway. Alright well then, first step we’re getting supplies. Then we’re off. San, can you handle internal comms and secondary connections?”

  
  
San nodded. “Yeah, I’ll take those over for now.” he agreed, already distracted with pulling those voices to him, his eyes sputtering red for a moment while he worked. Hongjoong had to admit it was a relief when over a dozen of the chaotic voices that played in his mind were suddenly silenced and directed elsewhere. 

The silver haired captain nodded, looking at the others. “Alright, everyone’s dismissed. Let’s head to Rengar for supplies, then we're off to Osok.” 

“Yes! Ice balls!” Wooyoung cheered, hopping up and pulling Yeosang with him, already babbling about what food they should buy at the market planet. 

Jongho chuckled as he watched them go, getting up as well. “I’ll go check our security system, and go over those manifests again.” He said before heading out of the common room. 

“Need us to do anything special, Jup?” Yunho asked, finally extricating himself from being wrapped around Mingi. 

“Not right now, you’re both free to do whatever.” Hongjoong replied after thinking for a moment. 

“Wanna come see my new array field? I had an idea on--..” Mingi’s voice faded as he and Yunho headed out of the common room and down the hall towards the armory. 

Hongjoong looked finally at Seonghwa and San again. “San, did you want to hang on the bridge?” he offered. 

“No, I’d just be in the way.” San replied, voice sounding small. “I’ll head back to my room, if that’s alright.” 

Hongjoong frowned, glancing at Seonghwa, before speaking to San once more. “You wouldn’t be in the way, Kit. You know you’re perfectly capable even without all of your eyesight.” he didn’t pose it as a question, it was a firm statement. There was going to be no question on how the captain viewed his navigator, San was capable no matter what condition he was in. 

“Come to the bridge with us. We need a third and it’s been boring without you.” Seonghwa added, nudging the youth gently. “No one’s around to call Joong on his terrible puns.” 

San looked uncertain, but nodded, offering a small smile. “Alright, if only to make sure no terrible pun is un-pun-ished.” finally that smile turned to an impish grin when Seonghwa groaned loudly.

“Never mind, go to your room.” he grumbled.

Hongjoong laughed and moved to stand next to San as the lithe male stood up, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “I knew you were always secretly on my side.” he teased, letting San lead while gently nudging him left or right if they were about to run into something, until they finally reached the bridge. He let his navigator go then, heading into the crystal tube, watching San head over to the comms station to sit down.

  
  
Seonghwa shot him a look, and Hongjoong gave him a small smile in return. They’d been told of San’s panic in the med-bay, and while they knew openly talking about it would probably make the dark haired youth shut down, they could work to gently show him how important he was to the crew, and to them. San reacted much better to subtle, and thankfully for Hongjoong, Seonghwa was the most subtle of them all, especially when it came to emotional issues. 

“Alright guys, let’s go.” The captain shifted himself in the tube, powerful moves igniting the nanites up in gold sparks as he pulled his hands out to either side, lining up a swarming string of nanites, before clapping his hands together, pushing his hands forward as they exploded between his fingers,  _ Illusion _ launching herself into wormhole space with the movement. 


	10. Chapter 10

“He’s going?” 

Avalon nodded immediately, staring at the floor where he was knelt down, one arm across his chest in a crisp salute. “Yes my liege. The last record we have is his arrival at a commerce planet near the outer rim, but he has moved towards the Osok system.” The commander risked a glance up towards the holo-projection in his office, tensing when he met steely blue eyes, immediately looking back down. “What are your orders, sir?” he finally asked when the silence became too much. 

“My son is proud, he will be working to undermine my rule even now. Your ships cannot follow him...is the experimental fighter ready?” The deep voice made Avalon want to shiver, only years of training to be in the position he was in currently kept him from his natural reaction. King Geumhim was nothing if not unnerving and strong. 

“Yes my liege, the fighter is ready and can be deployed at your order.” Avalon replied, glad his voice didn’t tremble. 

“Send Salin. He will return my son, and my Herald.” Geumhim ordered. 

Avalon hesitated, before speaking again “And his crew, sir?” 

He couldn’t see the smile that crossed the King’s face, and for that Avalon was grateful. He could imagine it, the sallow lips pulling over sharp cheekbones, teeth bared in an unsettling appearance that the man was about to attack rather than what a smile usually meant. “Salin knows what to do. My son must be taught a lesson, and it is unfortunate it will cost us one of our own but he will understand what it means to choose pleasure over duty. Good work, Commander. I expect to hear from Salin in three days time.” the holo-projection flickered and then cast Avalon in darkness.

  
  
The commander waited, counting to ten silently, before he stood and stared where the projection had been. “Yes sir.” he muttered under his breath, allowing himself a moment of irritation before starting what he needed to do. He had never wanted to get involved in the royal Anyangi family. He had left Anyang and joined the Federation to keep law and justice in the universe. However when the King requested him personally for this specific mission, Avalon had been unable to say no. Partly for his loyalty and duty to his people, and partly because he was certain if he refused he would have ended up dead. 

Straightening his uniform, Avalon headed out of his office and towards the rear hangar of the cruiser. Tapping his embedded comm behind his ear, he spoke quietly to the person on the other end. “It is time, you’re needed.” 

Entering the hangar, and moving down the long hall to the very last section, Avalon took a breath, and placed his hand on the reader to unlock the invisifilm that was covering what had been docked in the spot. The metallic covering seemed to melt away into the air, revealing a sleek black one-man fighter. All points and sharp features, it was intimidating to look at, the cockpit canopy shaped in points at the base to make it look as if it was a large bird of prey glaring down at it’s target. 

“Commander.” 

Avalon tensed as his grey gaze ripped from the beastly ship to the pilot he would be sending after the pirate prince. Much like the fighter the man before him was slim but with sharp features. The man’s dark hair was long and braided down his back, and Avalon realized with a start that those same slitted grey eyes had threatened him onboard the  _ Illusion _ not a week before. This man though, he was older by at least ten years, perhaps a brother?

“Park Seonghwa is my brother, yes.” The man said suddenly, a smile crossing his face easily as he tilted his head in a birdlike fashion. “Do you find that problematic?” 

Avalon cursed himself internally, had it been so clear on his face? “No, No. You are...are you aware what your mission is?” he questioned quickly, trying to save himself from the awkward intense stare being given to him. It was just as unsettling as the younger brother’s. 

“I serve my King the way he requests. I am the blade of my Lord’s hand, his vengeance exacting.” Salin tilted his head to the other side, his smile shifting ever so slightly to a more predatory grin. “You think I would be troubled by his order to kill them? My brother?” 

Avalon nodded, feeling nauseous as once again his thoughts were spoken to him so easily. His mind raced, but he could not think of what kind of creature this was, could he read thoughts? Was that how he was doing it? “I feel as though there may be a conflict.” he finally grit out. 

“When Park Seonghwa kidnapped the Prince he became an enemy of Anyang. I will correct the grievous shame he has brought to my family, and return our beloved Prince back to us.” Salin gave a small bow. “It would behoove you to memorize those words. They will be what the Federation begins to speak once Hongjoong is back where he belongs.” he added, shooting Avalon a wink before heading to the fighter’s ladder.

  
  
Avalon turned, stepping back to watch the tall male scale up and get into the experimental Anyangi fighter. When those grey eyes met his once more, he received one more shark-like smile, grey turning to a glowing silvery black, and the ship lifted off. The commander let out a sharp breath, trying to process what he’d just been told. Everyone knew Hongjoong had left of his own volition, there had been no end to the Prince’s anger towards his father. It had been an enraging moment to all loyal to the crown when they had been told to stand down and to not go after Hongjoong and let the bastard go about the galaxy in some kind of experimental ship. 

Now the King was planning to erase the last eight years, to give his son a complete restart? Avalon grit his teeth, anger burning. That wasn’t fair, not to the thousands of loyalists who had sat back and watched their Prince betray his people in the Federation, and not to the millions of loyalists on Anyang. This couldn’t be allowed to happen, it was too much.  Turning on his heel, Avalon headed back the way he’d come. Once more he tapped the comm embedded behind his ear, voice calling out once more. “Lieutenant Kash, meet me in my office immediately.” This wouldn’t be allowed to stand, Avalon wouldn’t allow it. The fate of Anyang was too important. 

\---

_ “This is your bodyguard.”  _

_ Hongjoong peered shyly at the tall silent boy on the stone floor in front of him, peeking out from behind his mother’s long gown. The kneeling boy didn’t move, a thick head of black hair shimmered in oil slick colors of black and green and blue on his head. Hongjoong looked up at his mother, frowning in question. She gave him a soft smile, gently but firmly pressing him out from behind her to approach.  _

_ “H..Hello.” Hongjoong had finally mustered, fidgeting as he moved towards the other boy, dropping to his knees and leaning over to try and catch the other’s gaze.  _

_ The boy kneeling tensed, eyes the color of the storms Hongjoong loved to watch gather far on the horizon before they crashed against their city’s weather dome locking onto his own. Hongjoong broke into an impossibly bright smile. This one...this one was his, he could see it. “ _

_ I’m Hongoong.” he introduced, as if somehow the boy that was supposed to be his protector wouldn’t know who he was. Still, it was polite manners and he was supposed to have those. _

_ “I am aware.” a soft voice came from the other, he had such sharp features, it seemed impossible such softness could come from them.  _

_ Hongjoong reached out then, small fingers carefully taking the other’s cheeks into his grip, making his new protector look directly at him. The boy looked like a bird, like the falcons he liked to watch dive for fish and gulls near the coast when they went to the ocean for the summer. “You’ll keep me safe, right? No matter what?” he didn’t understand how important that question would become years later, right now it felt like the proper princely thing to ask, and his mother didn’t correct him. He also didn’t hear her stifling giggles at how very seriously these boys were taking this.  _

_ “I will protect you until the last breath leaves my lungs.” The boy promised, voice becoming harder in his absolute conviction.  _

_ Hongjoong held his gaze longer, before nodding. He absolutely believed him with every fiber in his being. “What’s your name?” he asked finally.  _

_ The boy didn’t really smile, but Hongjoong caught the slightest twinge of the left side of his mouth, and those hard grey eyes became softer. “It’s Seonghwa, my liege.”  _

_ Hongjoong smiled at that. “You’re a star then. My star.” he declared. “And...please, call me Hongjoong okay? Just when we’re alone?” he quickly added, he could feel his mother wanting to correct it immediately and he wanted to cut her off.  _

_ Seonghwa’s gaze flickered towards the Queen, but whatever he saw must have put him at ease, because he once again nodded. “Of course. When we are alone, you are Hongjoong.”  _

_ Hongjoong finally let the other’s face go, trying to think exactly what one was supposed to do with a bodyguard. He stood, and Seonghwa stood with him. Hongjoong frowned at how tall he was, the protector was already four inches taller than him, that wasn’t fair! Well, he had lots of growing to do. One day he’d tower over Seonghwa, he decided.  _

_ “Wanna play soldier?” he asked suddenly, and even though Seonghwa didn’t answer Hongjoong’s small hand was already finding the other’s, lacing their fingers together while he led him to his toys in the corner of his room. “You be Mars, and I’ll be Juno.” Hongjoong decided, handing over his carved wooden figure.  _

_ “Don’t you think you’d be better as Jupiter?” Seonghwa asked, fingers curling along the fabric that the ancient God’s figure wore.  _

_ Hongjoong made a face, fingers caressing the Goddess’s flowing silver hair that reminded him of his mother. He hesitated, before taking up the tallest of his figures dressed in gold and crimson. “I’ll be both.” he decided, and at once the boys were in a complicated game of war and negotiation that only ended when Dionysus showed up...and when it was lunch time.  _

“We’re here.” Seonghwa’s voice called out sharply, rousing the curled up captain from the comms chair. 

Hongjoong blinked blearily, sitting up to stretch as he looked over at the crystal navigation tube. He couldn’t help but smile as San shifted, arms going from left to right, pulling them out of wormhole space expertly. Crimson eyes turned dark brown and San let out a breath, relief palpable on his face at having gotten them where they were going safely. 

“Good job, Kit. What’s it look like out there?” Hongjoong asked, getting up and waiting for the main portal to activate, standing to let Jongho take the comms station. 

“Nothing too out of the ordinary from what we’d initially thought. I’m reading some weird magnetic fluctuations in the upper atmosphere, but it shouldn’t be anything dangerous. There’s a crazy huge storm in the northern hemisphere but I don’t know if we’re supposed to go anywhere near it.” San reported as the sensors fed him their information.

The portal flickered to life and a verdant beautiful planet of oceans and green forests appeared. The forests were broken up by grey white capped long mountain ranges, and Hongjoong could see the storm San was talking about seemingly devouring the northern part of the planet, moving slowly to the west as he watched it revolve. 

“No contact yet between Osoki military. I don’t see any long range scanners out here.” Jongho reported as he tapped along his projected padd. “I think we might be safe to do as we please here, so far.” 

Hongjoong nodded “What’s the defense system look like?” He looked towards the weapon station, the small warmth of gladness that Mingi was standing there, proud and focused, hitting him as it had the past few days since getting the weapons expert back. 

Mingi slid his fingers along his panel, tilting his head curiously as he studied the readouts. “Looks like there’s no system for global defense, there’s some ancient weaponry pinging on the surface but nothing that looks active. There’s some weird radiation readings though.” he warned. “We’ll have to keep monitoring that, no one needs to get rad poisoning while we’re wandering around.” 

Hongjoong frowned “Do you have anything that can keep us safe?” 

Mingi looked thoughtful for a moment, before snapping his fingers. “I need to borrow Yeosang and Yunho for about thirty minutes and I’ve got an idea?” 

“Take them, we’re not moving anywhere until the topographical scan is done anyway. I don’t want to be wandering around this planet lost trying to maybe find something. We’ll see if there’s any weird ancient ruins or anything first, and go from there.” Hongjoong replied, dismissing Mingi to head off the bridge, already calling Yeosang to meet him in engineering. 

“Scan should be done within the hour, Jup.” Seonghwa called out, eyes watching as the map data filled in, tapping and highlighting interesting things that were coming up. 

“Perfect, San keep up on the sensor scans. I’d rather not have Osoki military sneak up on us.” Hongjoong ordered, fidgeting and bouncing on the balls of his feet as he looked out on the planet. 

“You got it, boss.” San replied, eyes glowing red as he leaned back against his tube and just focused on the vast expanse around _ Illusion _ . 

“Hey...cap?” Jongho’s voice sounded confused, and quiet. 

Hongjoong looked over, raising a brow. “What’s up?” 

“I just received a message from Chinhae.” he began, fingers flying over the screen as he translated and unencrypted what his contact had sent. “Does the name Salin mean anything to you?”

There was a frightening squeal of metal and then a crunch, and both Hongjoong and Jongho looked sharply towards where Seonghwa had just gripped his station so tightly he’d pulled off an entire corner. The second looked equally surprised, and then apologetic as the console flickered, and then died. 

“That scan may take a bit longer.” he said quietly, moving to the auxiliary console to continue his work. 

Hongjoong watched him, eyes narrowing but he had to worry about Jongho first. He looked back to the crimson haired male. “It does, why?” he answered carefully. 

“Chinhae couldn’t send me a lot of information before his cruiser jumped, he basically said that Avalon’s fleet is coming, but also to watch for Salin. Doesn’t...Doesn’t that just mean murder? Why would someone be named that?” Jongho asked worriedly. 

“It’s not his original name. It’s what he chose for himself.” Seonghwa’s voice was soft, and at a frighteningly odd unemotional pitch that made the hairs at the back of Jongho’s neck stand up. 

“So...he’s a murderer?” He pushed. 

“He’s my father’s executioner. Which means if he’s coming here, we have a lot less time than I’d like.” Hongjoong finally explained, hitting his comm quickly. “Rocket you’ve got fifteen minutes. Nova, prep  _ Horizon _ . We need an extra way off this planet if things get crazy.” he waited for the chorus of ‘ _ aye sir _ ’ from his crew and ignored the immediate whining from both Wooyoung and Mingi at their respective orders, looking at Jongho. “Head down to the armory and get our kits ready, then keep translating what Chinhae sent you. I want to know why Avalon’s moving his ships when he knows he might get attacked.” 

Jongho nodded, getting up. “Yes sir, do you think we’ll need anything special?” he asked as he got ready to head off the bridge. 

“Pack for ‘I think this is normal but just in case’.” Hongjoong replied with a grin. 

“Grenades and that neat freezy stun glove Seonghwa had, got it.” Jongho gave a lazy salute before heading out. 

Once he was gone and Hongjoong was sure San was very casually not listening to what was happening, the silver haired male slid over to his very tense counterpart. He casually reached up, ignoring the sharp irritated look he received and carefully uncurled Seonghwa’s hand, sighing softly as he brushed his fingers against the reddened slightly bloody skin of the other’s palm. “Let me get the kit.” he told him, heading over to where they stored a small first aid kit in a wall panel. 

“He’s going to try and kill them. He’s going to come and kill our crew.” Seonghwa seethed, eyes slitting, voice coming out in a barely contained rage-filled hiss. 

“Well he’s going to come, that’s true.” Hongjoong replied easily, pulling out a small dermal regenerator and a packet of green gel, heading back over and casually smearing the goop all over the cuts from the torn plastic. “He’s going to show up and we’re going to ruin his day. Honestly it’ll be sort of poetic justice for us, don’t you think?” he eyed Seonghwa carefully as he spoke, searching those angry eyes, trying to coax him back from his panic and anger. 

Seonghwa didn’t seem quite ready to let go of his bristled protective rage. “Hongjoong they’ve never faced anything like him. He’s--”

“Like you.” 

Seonghwa jerked, looking wounded, eyes immediately filling with sorrow. “Is..is that…how you see me?”

Hongjoong rolled his eyes, giving him a look of ‘really?’ before he finished up his work on the other’s hand. “Seonghwa, he’s my father’s protector, what did he call himself? My father’s blade?” he wrapped a bandage around the gel just to let it finish up what the regenerator couldn’t do. “That’s what you are. For me. The differences are very vast after that, but when I boil it down to what you two are, you’re my protector. My blade.” he studied his face, speaking more gently now. “You’ve never failed me, in our whole lives since we met. We’ve faced pirates and bombs and Wooyoung learning to cook. Exploding stars and prisons and everything in between. You’ve  _ never _ failed me. You’ve never failed us.” he motioned around him, at the ship, and the other six that were lurking somewhere within her. “He’s going to come, and he’s going to lose, because you don’t fail. And neither do the rest of us.” 

Seonghwa was trembling faintly, pulling his hand away from Hongjoong, only to reach out and wrap his arms around the other, gripping him in a tight hug. “I’ll protect you until my last breath.” he murmured quietly into his silver locks. 

Hongjoong patted him gently on the back, hugging him back for a moment, before gently wiggling away. “I know, but I expect that last breath not to be for at least fifty more years okay?” he eyed him. “Captain’s orders.” he gave him a wink. 

Seonghwa gave his small lip quirk smile, nodding. “Anything for my prince.” he replied, voice still rough but he was much less upset. 

“Good.” Hongjoong leaned up, placing one chaste but warm kiss upon Seonghwa’s lips, then turned. “Now finish that scan so we aren’t running around an entire planet waiting to get attacked.” 

Seonghwa watched his captain saunter away, a soft smile on his face until he finally caught sight of San, who was looking at him with no red glow in those eyes of his, making kissy faces and waggling his eyebrows. Seonghwa blushed, glaring at him, but it held no heat. “Get back to work.” he grumbled. 

“What? It’s cute, I’m jealous that I’m stuck in here and can’t kiss you too.” San pouted. “I’m also happy I can actually say I saw you two being ridiculously cute.” 

Seonghwa snorted “I’ll kiss you once we’re done making sure the universe isn’t destroyed, and we aren’t all dead.”

“That’s forever from now! I’m unloved, I get it.” San pouted, before grinning and winking at him. “Not that I was listening, because I was definitely not...but he was right. You’ve got this, and if you don’t, we’ve got you.” 

“That’s a very sweet sentiment for someone who definitely wasn’t listening and will not tell anyone what they heard.” Seonghwa replied, relaxing more at the banter. 

“Mmhmm, yep that person sure didn’t already send a small snippet to like four other crewmates and there was definitely not a video included.” San replied, grin widening when he finally got a small laugh from their second. Finally deciding he’d managed to help Mars enough, he went back to the outside sensors, letting the ship fall away once more to settle back into the darkness of space. 


	11. Chapter 11

Yunho grimaced at the wind that whipped his blond hair into his eyes, shivering even in his thick leather jacket he’d borrowed from Mingi when they’d finally been told where they were going. “I hate this. Why are we so close to that storm?” he grumbled, looking towards the horizon at the massive storm wall that couldn’t be more than a hundred kliks away. 

“Because according to Seonghwa this is one of four old crumbling structures that might be where that thingie is.” Wooyoung replied, coming up beside him, eyes locked onto a handheld scanner he was waving around. “At least this one has an inside eventually, once we find the door. There’s at least four chambers below us once we get to them.” 

Yunho looked around them, studying the ancient looking stone pillars in front of two very high cliff faces. Walking between them lead to the ancient wind worn building that Hongjoong had seemed to focus on. He shivered as the wind shrieked through the natural tunnel that had formed probably millions of years ago when the volcano that this ruined building was built into had exploded. “Sounds like people screaming.” He muttered to Wooyoung as he carefully picked his way over the broken stone slabs that once served as a walking path towards where the others were. 

Wooyoung shivered then. “Thanks for that.” he muttered as the wind picked up and indeed along the stones and their cracks and holes it did sound as though a thousand forlorn voices cried out. The lavender haired male wondered if it was because they were disturbing their old home. “Don’t worry, spooky ghosts that may or may not exist, we’re not going to disturb too much, promise.” he told the wind, quickly following after the blond engineer so as not to be alone. He also steadfastly ignored the snickering that indicated Yunho had heard his placating to imaginary spirits. 

They quickly joined Mingi and San, who had taken up residence just inside where the cliff walls started. San was fussing with a scanner like the one Wooyoung had, scanning along the walls and looking at the readings. Mingi was setting up what looked like wall mounted mini gun turrets at his height on the stone. Yunho raised a brow at the guns, catching the redhead’s eye. 

“I don’t know who this guy is that’s coming after us, but if we’re going inside like Nova thinks we are, I’d rather have some first, second, and sixth lines of defense going on.” Mingi explained, activating the turret he was working on, letting it boot up and then scan them. “I’m going to plant some mines once we’re all ready to head inside, just along the perimeter.” the weapon’s expert grinned, futzing with the turret to make sure it had registered the eight friendlies that it was supposed to not fire at. “I’m not letting him anywhere near us.” 

Yunho nodded in understanding. “Well Wooyoung and I were the last two out there, everyone else is at the structure. Let’s go start planting them now. Jup doesn’t want any of us alone so I’m your buddy.” He looked back at San and Wooyoung. “You two gonna be okay while we do that?” 

Wooyoung gave him a thumbs up “We’ll be fine.” he nudged San, shivering when the weird forcefield around his body tingled as it bumped against the one around San’s, making them both spark blue for a second. “I hate these fields, by the way, Rocket. I can’t feel anything, it’s just all static.” he whined. 

Mingi laughed as he reached down to his own wrist, adjusting the clunky band of a bunch of cobbled together parts, making his own field flicker blue before going back to normal. “I’m just glad I could do this in the twenty minutes Jup gave me. Be happy when you don’t need to spend two weeks in med because of radiation, this place is the worst I’ve seen registered on the planet.” Turning he gave the two a wave, before heading out with Yunho to begin his mine placements. 

Wooyoung watched them go, his smile fading off his face as he looked at San. San was focused on his handheld, but he made a small motion with his free hand, trying to encourage the lavender haired male to speak. 

“Doesn’t it bother you? That Seonghwa lied to us all this time?” He finally spoke, keeping quiet in case one of the others suddenly came up. 

San blinked, looking at him in surprise. “What do you mean?” 

“He’s said he didn’t know anything about Anyang, or the captain...he never said where he came from, it was always just weird vague answers. Now he’s been there the whole time, and oh yeah he has some murderer brother that’s coming to hunt us down who also serves the Anyangi royal family?” Wooyoung huffed, anger seeping out in his sharp words. “What else have they been lying about?” 

Ever since Seonghwa and Hongjoong had told them of the man coming to hunt them, who he was and Seonghwa’s actual connection to the captain, it had been irking Wooyoung to no end. Six years he had been with the crew, one of the very first members along with Yeosang, and they hadn’t in any of that time thought it was important to tell them any of this. 

San frowned, reaching up to run his fingers along Wooyoung's cheek. “Hey...we all have secrets on the ship, right? I think they didn’t tell us, because until some crazy prophecy happened it would’ve never been important. It wasn’t...I don’t think it was because they don’t trust us. You especially, you’ve been there since the beginning.” 

Wooyoung flinched, and San knew he’d hit where it hurt the most for the other. He pressed on carefully, not wanting to make him even more upset. “They trust you, Youngie. They love you.” he said gently. 

Wooyoung took a deep breath, that uncertain look in his eyes not quite fading but he sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I know they love me. I just...don’t like that they kept this a secret for so long.” 

San frowned, but he didn’t want to push any more on the subject. “Hey...focus now, be angry later?” he was hesitant, he honestly always felt awkward trying to invoke their way of life, even three years later. 

Wooyoung paused, but nodded more sharply. “What uh...what have you discovered?” he asked, motioning at the handheld, desperate to change the conversation. 

San quickly followed, grateful to discuss something else. “Oh! So I think I figured out what this was used for. These cliff walls were shaped by lava right? But here they were dug out.” he pointed to the smooth long vertical lines. “I was trying to figure out why, but the scans revealed a lot of old geothermal activity. This place used to be a lot warmer, and these walls got dug out big enough for big vehicles to go through, like carts and stuff.” 

Wooyoung looked over San’s shoulder curiously, trying to make sense of all the weird squiggly scans the navigator was translating. “So you think they used to come here because it was warm?” 

“I think they either used it as food storage, or yeah as a place they came in the winter. It’d be perfect right? Stay here for the winter then go to the cooler areas that warmed up when summer came. I think they might’ve been nomadic.” San was now animatedly babbling, flicking the handheld’s images to the underground caverns Wooyoung had taken. “Look! These chambers are huge, they could have held animals and food and even whole tribes.” 

Wooyoung couldn’t help but smile at San’s excitement. He leaned over, kissing the navigator on the cheek, enjoying the confused look he got. “You’re cute.” he said simply. 

San couldn’t help the warm grin that lit up his features. “Shut up. I don’t know when they would’ve stopped using it though, I can’t really measure when the lava stopped heating up this place.” 

_ “Kit, Nova, we think we found a way in. Come to the ruins.” _ Hongjoong’s voice called over their comms, making the two turn towards the far away building the others had been in.    
  


As Wooyoung headed forward another blast of frigid wind hit the cliff, those high pitched whistles and screeches echoing the deeper they went. “I hate this place.” he grumbled, burrowing deeper into his fuzzy jacket. 

“Next time one of us has some crazy thousand year old prophecy to fulfill, we’ll make sure it’s on a nice mild forest or beach planet.” San soothed, laughing as he dodged a swipe from the lavender haired male and running with Wooyoung chasing him all the way inside. 

\---

“Hey you’re keeping track of these right?” Yunho called out as he covered the landmine he was burying with dirt, carefully placing the small patch of sod he’d pulled up over it so it looked like all the rest of the land around him. 

“Of course I am, I wouldn’t just activate thirty pressure mines and not have an idea where they were.” Mingi huffed in an offended tone. 

“If one of us runs across here and blows up you know Yeosang will be mad at you.” The blond grinned at the weapons expert, winking at him. 

“I’ll make sure it’s me so I don’t have to hear the lecture.” Mingi replied dryly, studying his map schematic. “Alright, they’re placed. Let’s head back a-...Yunho?” he looked in confusion at the blond, who was standing still, head tilted to the side as if he was listening to the wind. 

“I hear something.” Yunho replied quietly, eyes narrowing as if that would somehow make the sound easier to pick up. 

“Maybe the giant storm that’s like two inches from us?” Mingi replied, eyeing that far off cloud wall suspiciously. 

“No it’s...an engine. I hear an engine.” Yunho said, voice pitched up in sudden worry. “Mingi! RUN!”

Mingi was booking it towards the cliffs that lead to the ruins when Yunho had said his name like that, and right where they’d been standing suddenly exploded with blaster bolts as a black single-manned fighter flew low, firing its main cannon in a line. Yunho was right behind him, looking around wildly as he tried to track the ship. It looked vaguely like a bird of prey, and it seemed to fade in and out of the sky, like it was camouflaging into the clouds and tree line so that he could barely make it out. It began to fire again, and Yunho leapt to the left, hitting the ground with a grunt as one of the blasts just blew up the ground next to him, sending him flying back. 

“Yunho!” Mingi stopped at the mouth of the cliff face, turning to look at where he'd lost the engineer. 

“Go!” Yunho managed to stagger up, turning and tensing when he saw the laser blasts coming right for him. There wasn’t time for him to dodge, they were going to hit him. He closed his eyes, crouching and waiting to feel the pain. 

A massive explosion erupted near him, and a high pitched whine went into the air, before another concussive force sent him flying this time towards the cliff wall. Yunho could barely understand why he wasn’t dead or in a world of hurt when big arms wrapped around him, hauling him into the tunnel. He looked back out at the grass and saw a plume of smoke where the weird fighter had crashed and set off a bunch of their mines, before the walls of the cliff overtook everything. There was an odd mechanical sound and Yunho stared blankly at Mingi’s arm. Mingi’s arm that had definitely been some kind of weird high-tech weapon a second ago.

“Mingi?” His voice felt weak, and he stared up at the redhead in confusion. 

Mingi looked down at him, eyes a bright blue for a long moment before they faded to their normal dark brown, filled with apology. “I’ll explain later, come on.” he said quickly, dropping Yunho so that the blond had to get up and actually walk on his own. 

“Mingi, your arm is a cannon. Can we discuss that now?” Yunho was trying not to freak out, but friends didn’t normally just turn into weapons to his recollection. 

“I upgraded for the mission. I’ll talk about why it’s my whole arm when we get back.” Mingi replied, pulling out his handheld to begin activating the turrets, then tapped his comm behind his ear. “Cap, I think Seonghwa’s brother is here. We shot him down before he could kill Yunho but I don’t think he’s dead.” 

There was a short pause before the response came to both of them. _“Get inside, we’ve found what we think is the way to whatever chamber holds this thing.”_   
  
Mingi looked at Yunho pleadingly, but the blond frowned at him. Mingi sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. “Look I just rewrote some of my biochemistry to mix with metalloids to be able to change them into something more explosive and projectile. It’s fine!” 

Yunho snorted. “We said no more bio-experiments, you nearly killed yourself last time!” 

“Yeah and this time it saved your life, so I’m not going to apologize” Mingi growled back. 

Yunho put up a finger to point it in Mingi’s face, before the turrets suddenly went off. He grit his teeth, glaring at the redhead. “Later.” he finally said, turning and running towards the building the others were in. 

Mingi frowned grimly, eyes going blue as his left arm turned to metallic liquid, once more the cannon appearing, solidifying along his left shoulder and over his chest as an anchor. “Later.” he said to the fleeing form, voice quiet and withdrawn. He suddenly turned when the turrets stopped firing, eyes burning bright. 

“Alright you bastard...where are you?” 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for death and all that graphic-ish violence I tagged this story for.

Yeosang frowned as he studied his handheld, light in his other hand shining off the stone wall he was measuring. “I think I found the door into the next chamber.” he called out, wincing as his voice rang in the massive cavern they were in. It was nearly twenty feet high, and impossibly wide. He was so far from the others he could only see them from their tiny balls of light off their own flashlights. 

All five balls aimed at him, and began to get closer until he could finally make out the rest of his crew. Hongjoong stepped up to the wall Yeosang had been studying, fingers tracing over the seam the medic had found. Following the seam he saw what made the other think it was a doorway, there was a metallic circle in the wall on the left of the rectangular seam. “I think it’s the same as the other chamber,” he said, nodding to Yeosang. “Go ahead.” 

Yeosang hesitated, not really wanting to be the one to touch it, but nothing had happened to Seonghwa when he’d done the other chamber. Taking a quick breath, the blond reached forward, touching the metal and then pressing it as he felt the spring inside go down. The stone clanked on it’s ancient chains, pulling to the right to create a four foot wide hole in the wall. 

“Why is everything so big?” Jongho asked, studying the massive doorway curiously. 

“San thinks they used to store animals and wagons down here.” Wooyoung piped up, stepping up to the door and shining his light into the chamber. 

Immediately there was a blinding flash, and all six men shielded their eyes. Wooyoung cursed, flicking off his flashlight, managing to squint his eyes to see where the light was coming from. His jaw dropped as slowly his eyes adjusted, and the inside of the chamber came into focus. Within the chamber were millions of sparkling stars, at least that’s what it looked like to him. The walls, the ceiling, and even the floor seemed to be sparkling and flashing from where his single beam of light had exploded and refracted on whatever was embedded into the stone. On the floor the lights seemed to be pulsing out and then back in, a giant galaxy spiral with wide arms that stretched to the walls, a circle of darkness in the center. 

“Dazzling lights.” He said softly. 

“What?” Jongho snapped, still not quite ready to unblock his eyes from where he’d hid his face into his arm. 

“Look!” Wooyoung yanked on the crimson haired male’s arm until Jongho finally gave up, wincing at the light, but he wore the same amazed look when his eyes adjusted. 

“What was the prophecy? Where screams deafen and lights dazzle?” Wooyoung continued, starting to get excited. “Those winds on the cliffs, I told Yunho they sound like screams! Could that be what it means?” he was practically bouncing from the idea of his discovery. 

Hongjoong frowned, not quite ready to believe any of this was real. “I mean...that’s...it could be? But what about between the sun and moon? It’s not like this place is in some weird position on the planet, the sun and moon pass over it like normal.” 

Wooyoung groaned “Come on Jup, where else are you gonna find a weird chamber of flashing prisms!” he waved his arms emphatically as if Hongjoong hadn’t seen the massive chamber they were heading into. 

San had headed inside, careful not to step on the constellations at his feet. “This is where the radiation is coming from.” He called back. “Whatever’s in this stone, it’s where it’s highly radioactive. I also don’t know how the light is staying inside of it...it’s like each spot is having a fusion reaction.” 

“Like creating tiny stars? Actual stars?” Seonghwa asked curiously. 

“Yeah, I don’t know how long it’ll last but it’s like standing in a room of a million tiny suns.” San replied, moving to stand in the center of the room to get a better scan of the interior. 

Hongjoong frowned, about to tell San to stop moving towards the center when Yunho had called over to him. He looked at Seonghwa and Yeosang. “Do you mind going to wait for them at the main chamber? I’m worried.”

Yeosang turned and winked “We’ll be back, no one die while I’m gone.” he warned them all, heading into the darkness of the room behind them, Seonghwa hot on his heels. 

Hongjoong snorted “We’re going to be fi-” he really should’ve stopped trying to say that, it had never gone well in his entire life. 

As San hit the center of the room where the lights finished their pulse, a sudden blinding beam of light erupted from the ceiling shining down upon him. The others once again had to cover their eyes, but it only lasted for a few seconds, fading and leaving an unconscious navigator laying in the spot where he’d been standing. 

“SAN!” Wooyoung tried to race forward, fighting against the strong arms of Jongho who had latched onto him. “Let me go! SAN!” the lavender haired male fought against the other’s grip. 

“We can’t do this! Only Hongjoong! It has to be him!” Jongho grunted in pain as he caught an elbow to the face, but refused to let go. 

Hongjoong didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he raced forward, thoughts only on San’s unmoving body. He slid to a stop on his knees, immediately pulling San against him, cradling his head against his shoulder and chest as he checked for a pulse. “San..San wake up come on.” he pleaded, mildly relieved at the heartbeat he could feel beneath his fingers. He gently slapped the other's face with his fingers. “Wake up Kit, please.” 

From the ceiling erupted that same light, enveloping Hongjoong and San, blinding Jongho and Wooyoung once more. At the same time some kind of force shoved them out of the room. Jongho heard the massive stone door slam shut, and he blindly reached out for the metal construct to reopen it, but it refused to budge. 

“Hongjoong!” Wooyoung was near hysterical, fists pounding on the stone. 

Jongho felt his own panic rising at Wooyoung’s cries, when there was a sudden rocking of the stone, and what sounded like explosions far above them. He winced as small stone chunks landed on his head, dusting them from his hair. 

_ “We need some help up here!” _ Came a strained call from Yunho, the sounds of laser blasts and large explosions easily heard over the comm. 

“We can’t...we can’t leave them.” Wooyoung whimpered, looking at Jongho pleadingly. 

Jongho looked at his imploring gaze, but steeled himself. “We have no choice. We can’t help them in there, we can’t get inside with just the two of us. We need the others.” he winced as another explosion rocked the chamber...what was bombing them that could reach this deep in the old mountain? “We have to go help the others, Nova. It’s the only way we can get Jup and Kit back.” 

Wooyoung took two quick breaths, not at all ashamed of the tears running down his cheeks. He nodded sharply, sniffling. “A-Alright. Alright.” he repeated, forcing the strength in his tone. “Let’s go.” he said, sprinting away, knowing if he didn’t run he would turn around and try to get into that stone door again. 

Jongho let out a breath as Wooyoung disappeared into the darkness, looking back at the door. He placed his hand on it, eyes narrowing. “We’ll be back.” he promised the two trapped inside, before turning to race off after the other. 

\---

_ “Little prince.” _

Yunho was shouting, blood streaming from a wound on his head, covering half his face in bright crimson. He pointed towards the left, his words garbled before he picked up his pulse rifle and took off in the direction he’d pointed, his gaze focused on a redheaded figure with a silver weapon arm, and the tall individual that had him on the ground, what looked like a sword imbedded in Mingi’s chest, the arm cannon caught up to fire uselessly into the air. The blond engineer didn’t notice the team of Federation gunmen to his left, eyes only for the man on the ground. He didn’t see them, but he felt as a curtain of blaster bolts ripped into his side. He reached out as he fell, trying to reach for Mingi, too far...too far. 

_ “You can’t sleep forever, you have to greet the day!” _

Yeosang curled around Wooyoung’s unmoving form, tears running down his cheeks as he tried desperately to breathe for him. Pounding on his chest, begging him not to die, the words muddled in panic as he refused to accept what was before him. A figure moved above him, and Yeosang turned tear-filled eyes towards the looming man above him, recognizing the Federation Commander before Avalon raised his pistol, and Yeosang fell on top of Wooyoung, both now unmoving. 

_ “Come now Hongjoong, it’s time to get up!” _

Jongho stumbled back, unable to suck in a breath, eyes wide as he pressed hard on the wound just below his ribcage. He dropped to his knees, a soft whine escaping him as he tried to get back up, his body and collapsed lungs refusing him even that. He fell to the side, fingers numbly reaching to his right, gripping onto Mingi’s ragged jacket, trying to ignore the fact he was holding where the other’s bloody stump was, his entire left arm now missing, somewhere on the battlefield. He whispered something, burying his face into the cool neck of the other redhead, eyes closing, letting his last breath out slowly. 

_ “That’s it, there you are my little princeling. Open your eyes.” _

Salin smirked down at his younger brother, forcing Seonghwa to his knees, the two locked by their blades, but the older was always stronger in a sheer brute force fight. He leaned down, eyes burning bright. “I’m going to take him, Hwa. I’m going to take him, and put him right back where you fought so hard to get him out of. You. Accomplished. Nothing.” His left hand lashed out then, the hidden dagger deadly and Seonghwa saw it too late, the blade slashing across his throat. 

Salin let him fall, stepping back and casually wiping his brother’s blood from his blade. “Good bye, brother.” he stepped over the struggling form, heading for the temple. 

_ “Hongjoong!” _

Hongjoong jerked, gasping and thrashing, eyes wide as he fell out of the bed he was in. He didn’t even take in his surroundings, his mind only focused on  _ get out get to them save them.  _ It was only when he tripped over a plush rug and hit the marble floor beneath him that he looked around, eyes widening when he realized where he was. His childhood bedroom stood out to him, all the colorful childish paintings on the walls, the toys and books and games strewn about as if he had only taken a nap as a child. A soft laugh, melodic and gentle that made his heart clench, erupted behind him, and he rolled over, staring at a slender woman with long silver hair in beautiful waves down to her waist. She wore a silver laurel on her head, her kind eyes glowing white, the only thing odd about her. Still, he couldn’t help the broken word that came from him, tears burning in his eyes. 

“Mother?”

She smiled sadly at him, before elegantly leaning down to rest on her knees, arms going wide, the bangles and silver jewelry she wore chiming melodically. “Come here my little prince.” she crooned. 

Hongjoong couldn’t help it, fifteen years of missing her hit all at once, and he threw himself into her arms, sobbing against her shoulder as her strong arms wrapped around him. “Mother, they...I think they’re dead. How do I...what do I do?” he whimpered, just holding onto her. 

“Shh, my little prince. You must listen to me. Come now, no tears here.” She replied, gently pushing him back, thumbs tracing over his face to wipe away the wetness. She offered him another kind smile, leaning to kiss him on the forehead. “There. Now, there is another we must welcome mm?” her voice became more conspiratorial, smile a bit more impish. It reminded him of how she used to convince him to do things when he was young. “Can you help me? I think he’s a bit frightened.” she motioned to the corner of the room as she spoke. 

Hongjoong followed her motion, eyes widening when he saw San. San, who was shoved back against the wall, glaring at both him and his mother, legs curled into his chest, his face hidden except for his eyes against his knees. Hongjoong hesitated, but pushed himself up at his mother’s silent encouragement, slowly approaching his navigator like he would a frightened animal. “San?” he asked gently. 

San tensed, jerking back even though he was already squished as close as he could be to the wall. “This isn’t real. This isn’t real.” he whispered, chanting it like a mantra. 

Hongjoong studied the other, raising a brow at the odd white streak now in his navigator’s dark hair. He tilted his head to the side, moving to his knees and scooting just a little closer. “San, I don’t know what this is, but I’m real...and the others need us. I need you to trust me. Please?” he pleaded. 

San locked eyes with him, and it took longer than Hongjoong would have liked, but finally he nodded, uncurling from his defensive ball. “What is all of this?” he asked finally.

Hongjoong reached out, gently pressing on that white streak in the other’s hair, before caressing his cheek. “I think this...this might be where we’re supposed to be.” he finally looked back at his mother. “Right?” he asked, standing, taking San’s hand tightly in his to encourage him to stand as well. 

His mother smiled fondly as she watched them, nodding. “It is, my heart. You have made it to the place between both sun and moon. It is time for your choice.” 

She raised her hands, silvery threads erupting from them, swirling and shifting to form a mirror in the center of the room. It was a full body mirror, six feet from floor to the end of it’s sparkling filigree decorative top. The shimmering reflective surface never really solidified, seeming to slowly melt down only to start at the top, like a silver liquid waterfall. 

“Child of Juno, friend of Mars. It is your right to claim the Herald.” 

Hongjoong looked at her, mouth set in a grim line. This wasn’t what he’d expected, he had been thinking he’d find some dusty relic, this was far beyond anything he’d imagined. There was a panic, in the back of his mind, those images of his crew dead flickering to his thoughts constantly. “What is the Herald? What do I have to do?” 

“It will become one with you. As the Herald you will have all the power of the Gods at your fingers. You will become the true King, a beacon to all who believe.” She replied, not seeming hesitant at all in answering his questions. 

Hongjoong’s eyes widened. That...was definitely not what he had expected. The power of the Gods...the power to protect them. He could stop his vision, he could stop what he had seen. Hongjoong had been about to agree when a gentle hand on his arm stopped him. He looked at San in confusion. 

“Don’t. Don’t choose to sacrifice yourself for them.” The navigator said softly. “I saw...I saw it too. I know what will happen if you don’t but...Joongie you can’t, not if it means we lose you.” 

Hongjoong frowned. “What do you mean? Why do you think you’d lose me?”

San looked at the woman next to the mirror, glaring at her. “Because I saw what will happen if you do it. She didn’t tell you there’s consequences for what she’s offering.” 

Hongjoong’s eyes widened, and he snapped his gaze to his mother. “What are the consequences?” he demanded instantly. He didn’t know how San was there, but he would trust him in this. 

His mother’s face fell for a moment, the gentle serene appearance turning to one of sadness. “We have been here for so very long, my heart. Trapped within this tomb, unable to help, to even see the endless expanse of space. We would...we would be inside you. The Herald carries with them the power of the Gods. As one.”

“What she means is that they’d burn you out. You would cease to exist, and your body would be theirs to control.” San hissed angrily. 

Hongjoong tensed, staring at the woman who was becoming less like his mother as he looked at her, her face becoming more elongated, her body more ethereal. “Is that true?” 

She sighed, as if she couldn’t be angry at San for telling Hongjoong this news, though she tried to glare at the lithe youth. “It...is. There are nine of us, we would...you would be lost. I am sorry, my heart.” 

Hongjoong looked away, mind racing. He could see them around the room, their bodies lifeless, staring up at him. “If I do this, will you save them?” he whispered. 

“Yes. They will all be saved. You have my word.” she promised. 

Hongjoong nodded, looking back at her with grim determination. “Then I accept. I’ll become the Herald. What do I need to do?”

“Wait, Hongjoong don’t. Please!” San grabbed him around the waist, refusing to let go. 

“San they’re all going to die, you’re all going to die if I don’t!” Hongjoong’s voice cracked as he turned, reaching up to cup the other’s face with his hands. “I can’t let that happen, I won’t...please you have to let me.” 

San trembled in his hold, hands wrapped around his wrists. He shook his head harshly. “I won’t let you, the others couldn’t live without you...we can’t lose you.” 

Hongjoong sighed, leaning forward and pressing their foreheads together. “I’m your captain. Do what I say, let me go and let me save you.” 

San hesitated, before letting go. It was obvious he didn’t want to, he was shaking violently in forcing himself to remain still as Hongjoong turned to face the woman once more. 

“I’m ready.” He said as confidently as he could. 

She smiled at him, a sad smile. “Touch the mirror, let us flow into you. Your sacrifice will be remembered forever, my heart.” 

Hongjoong turned, staring at himself in the mirror. He silently said a good bye to each of them, to his lovers and his life. His mind lingered on each of them, their faces, their laughs, to the adventures they had shared, the fights they had lost and the victories they had celebrated. He took a deep breath, hand coming up. They would have more of those, they would survive to celebrate and to lose and to live when he did this. Determination filled him, and he stepped forward. 

A hand touched the mirror. 

Hongjoong stared at it in confusion, his own hand still inches away from the odd liquid metal. He looked over to his left, his worst fear confirmed. San stood beside him, eyes narrowed as his fingers clenched into the mirror’s gelatin-like state, the same grim determination he had felt on the navigator’s face. Hongjoong didn’t even have time to call out when something flashed from the mirror, straight into San’s arm, a blinding silvery white light that threw the navigator back ten feet into the wall. When he hit it actually cracked the marble, and he landed face first into the plush rug beneath their feet, unmoving. 

“That...was unexpected.” The woman said, concern in her voice as she looked to the mirror. It had faded in color, the silvery sheen turning more brassy and the ethereal light had lowered. “Could it be?” she whispered, looking towards where the prone form lay. 

Hongjoong had raced to San’s side, flipping him over. “San? SAN!” he cried, nearly screaming it as he shook the other. That white streak in his hair had turned a metallic silver color, shimmering in the lights of the room. 

San’s eyes suddenly snapped open, brown fading before turning that same mercurial silver as the mirror, and he shoved Hongjoong aside, standing. “It worked.” he suddenly laughed, jumping up and down. “It worked! Juno! Look!”    
  
San suddenly seemed to vanish, a streak of silver around the room, before hovering like he was wearing a jetpack next to the woman by the mirror. He set his feet down, smiling widely in a way that was wholly unlike San. 

Hongjoong’s heart clenched, and he stood. “Where’s San.” he snapped angrily, reaching for his pulse pistol and pulling it up instantly. “What happened?!” 

The woman smiled at San, but at Hongjoong’s actions she frowned. “He’s allowed one of us to join him.” she explained. 

“Let him go!” Hongjoong knew he was being ridiculous, that he’d been just about to do what San had done, but somehow losing the navigator was so much worse. 

“It cannot be undone.” She spoke sadly, looking to San. “Is...is he gone?” 

San grinned then, an impish look that was so reminiscent of his navigator that Hongjoong could almost convince himself it was San. “He’s not! He’s not! Juno he’s...oh I like him.” the thing in San’s body said. “Wait wait don’t shoot us!” he put up his hands, stopping the silver haired captain from firing, Hongjoong’s finger slowly moving off the trigger. 

Silver eyes faded to brown, and San looked apologetic. “Hi.” he waved hesitantly at Hongjoong. 

Hongjoong shook his head sharply. “Don’t do that...don’t make me think he’s there.” He growled. 

“No! No I’m me! Well, sort of.” San tried, hands up. “Jup it’s me, I swear on Seonghwa’s hair products and Mingi’s weird collection of melted scrap metal, it’s me.” 

Hongjoong untensed by a fraction, his brain trying to tell him that of course whatever possessed San would know what was in San’s head, probably knew what to tell him, but the other part of him that desperately wanted to believe he hadn’t lost his Kit was winning out. “How?” he looked at the woman. 

“I’m...not sure, actually.” she looked at San. “You feel Mercury within you?” 

San nodded. “He’s here! And very chatty but.” he flexed his arms, looking at her. “I’ve got control of everything?” 

“What does that mean?” Hongjoong asked, panic and anguish starting to fade just a little as it seemed more and more like San was actually San. 

“It means that I think we may have solved your sacrifice.” She smiled brightly. “Our power has been kept here for eons, because the last Herald perished. We have only ever inhabited one being, our power burns through the mortal form and that is why we would have lost you. But in this I think…” she looked at San once more. “I think we may have a solution. However, it would require your decision. You and yours would be able to carry one of each of us, and in return we will protect you as you travel through the galaxy.”

“Wait, aren’t there nine? What about the last one?” San asked curiously. 

She paused, looking at Hongjoong thoughtfully. “You are already a son of Juno, do you believe you could carry two?” 

“I have no idea what that means, but if it’s what gets us out of here and keeps everyone alive, yes.” Hongjoong replied. 

The woman hesitated, studying his face. “You are deciding this fate upon your entire family, do you truly believe each would wish to have one of us nesting inside of them?” 

Hongjoong hesitated, looking at San helplessly. San raised a brow, before sighing as if his dear captain was the most exasperating being in the galaxy. 

“Joongie I literally just touched a magic mirror thing to save you from dying knowing full well it would probably kill me. Every single one of us would’ve done that. Come on, if it keeps you alive and here with us we’d do anything.” He crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. “I know they’d want to do this.” 

Hongjoong snorted, smiling weakly. “Well now I know he’s not gone, no one else can pout like that.” he teased, before growing more serious. “We are also definitely going to be having a group conversation about you trying to kill yourself to save me.” he eyed San until the other looked properly abashed, and only then did he turn to the woman once more. “Alright. How do we do this?” 

She smiled at him then, motioning him forward. “Place your hand upon the mirror. We who will join you will separate ourselves from the others, and once we are settled we will bring the others to their hosts.” she eyed San, reaching over to ruffle his hair. “You are a very clever mortal.” 

“I fully expected to die from this, but I’m glad it worked out in my favor.” San replied, blushing at her praise. 

Hongjoong stepped up once more to the mirror, taking a deep breath. He hesitated once more, but this time from sheer nerves instead of the build up of what he had felt before. Fear that they were tricking him crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside. He had to believe this, he had to think there was a way out. Reaching out, he placed his hand upon the mirror, clenching his fingers into the gelatinous metal like San had. 

It was like lightning and fire running up his arm, but there was no pain. Warmth and tingling filled him, and he gasped as he stumbled away from the mirror, a twin vision of crimson and gold, and blue and silver filling his mind. He felt his own psyche fracture a bit, but there was a gentle soothing, a whispered song that soothed his mind and carefully pulled him up from the depths of what felt like an endless ocean, until he was standing before two figures. 

Around them was inky blackness, they stood upon a silvery blue disk that rested above gently lapping water. Hongjoong stared at the figures in front of him, easily recognizing them from the endless stories and games and toys his mother had given him. Tall and regal, towering over him was the great King of the Gods. Beside him, with her silvery flowing hair and beautiful face stood the Queen. Hongjoong smiled at them weakly, waiting for them to speak. 

“He’s much smaller than I thought.” Jupiter spoke finally, voice deep and loud. 

“His strength lies in his being, not his physical size.” Juno chided, kneeling to gently place her hand on Hongjoong’s cheek. “Are you ready to seize your victory?” 

Hongjoong frowned, looking between them. “Am I still me?” he hated how small his voice sounded, how scared he was. 

Jupiter laughed at that, the sound like a cannon shot, but it filled Hongjoong with warmth. “Of course! Son of Juno and carrier of my name, you are yourself. You carry within you our power, and our being, but you choose how you wield them. I’m excited to see exactly what you do with it.” 

_ “Cap...cap wake up.” _ __   
__   
“Go now, you hold fate in your hands, little one.” Juno smiled, before suddenly pushing him off the disk. 

Hongjoong sank, but this time he wasn’t afraid, letting himself be pulled into the darkness. It took barely a second to wake up, eyes opening to stare up into San’s worried face. He was rested in the navigator’s lap, head against the other’s chest and shoulder. He blinked slowly, before smiling. “It’s kind of nice to wake up in this position, I see why you like it.” he said, voice rough. He felt like he’d been screaming. 

San snorted, laughing even as tears fell from his eyes, he just squeezed Hongjoong tighter. “I can’t believe we almost lost you.” he said, burying his face into his captain’s chest, just breathing him in.

Hongjoong reached up, gently petting his fingers through San’s hair, playing with the metallic silver streak. “It was real?” he asked, even though he could still feel the power within him he had to make sure it had been true. 

“Mm. I feel him in my head. The others are here.” San pointed to a small pile of what looked like fractured mirror pieces. “I know who they are, Mercury told me. I think I know where they go too.” he looked around the dark room they were still in, the cavern glowing faintly now, the lights no longer pulsing so much as just shining, shifting blues and purples along the ceiling. 

Hongjoong looked up at the pretty colors, smiling faintly. “It’s like an aurora.” he said in wonder, before wincing when dust hit him in the face along with a heavy thudding explosion far above them. “Ugh...right.” he pushed himself up, dusting off his face and looking towards the open door. “You said you know who they go to?” 

San nodded, reaching for the shards. “Can we go? Please?” he asked, grinning as he bounced on the balls of his feet. 

Hongjoong snorted. “Yes, go on. I’ll catch up.” 

San jumped up and was suddenly gone. Hongjoong could see the trails of silver behind the other now, the left over power Mercury used glittering before fading into the air. Standing fully, Hongjoong pulled himself to his full height, fingers running through his silvery locks, flicking his beads and grinning. “Let’s go end this.” he said to the ones in his own mind, stalking forward when he felt their power surge within him. It was time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To that wonderful anon commenter who keeps worrying they're all going to die or I'm going to kill someone...um. I love you?


	13. Chapter 13

“Watch the bombers!”

“Why did no one bring the rail gun?” 

Jongho snorted at Wooyoung’s complaint, ducking behind an ancient stone piece that had once been part of the road as a shuttle flew over, dropping concussive rounds and destroying more of the area around them. He peeked out where the lavender haired male and their medic were, barely ten yards away but it felt like a hundred. “Nova! You and Stardust get back to the ship, we can get the big guns then!” he called out. 

“I outrank you!” Wooyoung snapped, recharging his pulse rifle and firing at a team of incoming Federation troops, causing them to scatter and take cover and thankfully stop firing at where Yunho was hiding. 

“What, do you want me to say please?!” Jongho shouted back, tapping in an eight second wait time on his pulse grenade, before hurling it into another pack of Feds. It landed expertly where he’d thrown it, exploding and stunning the six Feds that had been about to turn and run. 

“That would be nice, yeah! Come on Yeosang we gotta get back to the ship.” Wooyoung tugged on the blond’s arm, working to get him to stand. 

“We can’t pilot it! Even if we got there, Hongjoong and San are nowhere!” Yeosang said, panic in his voice as he looked back at the cliff temple, as if hoping to manifest them by thought alone. 

“We can use auxiliary power, at least get us hovering.” Wooyoung fired twice at incoming Feds. “Anything to get some of these assholes off us!” 

Jongho dropped down as a blaster bolt nearly winged his head, breathing out sharply as he took a precious second to rest against the stone, staring at the temple. It had been twenty minutes since he’d dragged Wooyoung out into a firefight, and since they’d left Hongjoong and San to whatever fate held for them. Just as Yeosang had watched the entrance, he tried to will the two of them to appear as well. It was this staring that made him see the barest flicker of a silver flash, and then suddenly San was in front of him. 

“Hey Jongho here!” San said impossibly fast, throwing a piece of a mirror at the crimson haired male before seemingly vanishing from sight. 

Jongho caught the piece of glass out of mere instinct, a sudden jolt running through his hands. Suddenly he was no longer on the battlefield, but standing atop a high mountain, wind whipping through his jacket, sharp and cold along his bare flesh. A large snowy owl was before him on a single log, gleaming red eyes shining through the flurry that fell around them. Jongho stepped forward on instinct, and the owl hooted it’s approval, a swirl of wrapping around it to reveal a very tall woman. She wore armor of bronze and white, a spear held in her left hand, the snowy owl perched on her right arm. She smiled at Jongho, offering a small bow. 

“Young blood of ocean and steel, I am Minerva. Your captain bids me protector of you and yours, and I will fulfill my pact. Do you accept my aid?” 

Jongho stared at her, trying to understand what all of that meant. “I...Hongjoong sent you?” he asked in confusion. 

She smiled kindly. “Yes. There is, of course, a much longer story to that however right this moment we are in no position to converse. Everything will be revealed once they are safe.” 

Jongho wanted to say no, strange visions were not exactly what he wanted to have that day and accepting help from weird armored anyones was not on his acceptable daily schedule. However, her face seemed so kind. She radiated an aura that he felt was trustworthy. If Hongjoong sent her...that was the final thought to his decision. “I accept,” he said with a confidence he did not feel. 

The armored woman smiled brightly, a more mischievous smile as she nodded. “Then, young ocean, let us see how we may create victory!” 

The snow swirled and Jongho opened his eyes, gleaming the same bright crimson as the owl. He was himself, but he could feel her now, ready and willing to aid him. As he looked across the battlefield he saw not chaos, but calculated actions. Information and tactics poured to him easily and he smiled. He stood, pulse rifle in hand, and nodded. “I’m ready.” 

\---

“Nova! Stardust!” 

San’s voice was suddenly next to Wooyoung and Yeosang, and they both jumped in startled surprise. 

  
“San! Thank the stars! We need to get _Illusion_ up and...flying.” Wooyoung’s voice tapered off, staring at the navigator, really taking him in. The weird silver streak in his hair, the odd mercurial silver eyes. “Uh...are you alright?” 

“Can’t explain now, take these. I gotta go find Yunho.” San handed him a piece of a mirror, doing the same to Yeosang, before he seemed to vanish into thin air. 

“What just happened?” Yeosang stammered, looking down at the weird piece of mirror glass he’d been handed. 

“I have no idea-oh.” Wooyoung’s words were cut off as a fiery burn seemed to radiate up his arm, and he fell into darkness. 

Jerking awake, the lavender haired male looked around in shock. No longer on the battlefield but instead in what looked like a lush verdant forest, impossibly tall trees circling the small clearing he was in. Wooyoung looked around in fear, anxiety dropping a bit when he saw Yeosang beside him. The blond also began to stir, blue eyes opening and blinking to look around in confusion. 

“Oh they’re precious! Oh my dearest look at them!” 

A melodic feminine voice filled the clearing, making both men stand, back to back in defensive positions. Wooyoung put his fists up, circling left as he felt Yeosang shift right, staring into the darkness of the trees trying to see who was speaking. 

“Come now, you frightened them.” A male voice chided playfully, coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. 

“Oh dear. I’m so sorry my new friends.” From the forest suddenly appeared a shimmering pink bubble. As it landed in the grass, it suddenly popped, a tall voluptuous beautiful woman appearing. Long brown hair hung in ringlets down her back and around her shoulders, a beautiful golden tiara glittering on the top of her head. She wore a simple white robe with gold trim, golden bangles and rings decorating her arms and fingers. She offered a pleasant wave, her lovely violet eyes lighting up in excitement. “Hello lovelies!” 

Wooyoung just stared at her in shock. “Uh..hi.” he replied by sheer force of manners. He felt Yeosang tense behind him, just as he felt an odd heat and a pop coming from where the blond was facing. 

“Ah! Hello there.” A male voice said brightly, and Wooyoung risked turning from the woman to look at what Yeosang saw. 

A man in golden armor with bright orange cloth beneath stood before them, his blond hair gleaming even in the dim light of the forest. His eyes were like molten metal, though they held a friendliness and excitement in them. His hair was decorated with a simple green laurel, red berries vibrant amongst the leaves. 

“Yeosang?” Wooyoung whispered, quickly grasping the other’s hand. 

“What is this?” Yeosang demanded, gripping Wooyoung’s hand tightly, squaring his shoulders as if ready to fight both of them. 

“He’s so protective, I love him already.” The woman said, moving to stand beside the blond mystery male. “You don’t have much time so I’ll be quick. I am Venus, and this is my lovely counterpart, Apollo.” 

Apollo bowed with a flourish as he was introduced, flashing a winning smile to them both. “We are sent by your gallant captain to offer you aid and succor during your trials. Namely this giant ground battle you’ve all gotten yourselves into, you’re very daring!”

“H-Hongjoong sent you? Where is he?” Wooyoung managed to get out. 

“Oh he had to speak to Juno and Jupiter for a moment, but he’ll be along shortly. Would you please accept our aid, children of bonded souls?” Venus asked, her tone light but almost pleading. 

Yeosang glanced at Wooyoung, who shrugged helplessly. His gaze told Yeosang what he needed to know, Wooyoung would follow his lead in this. Yeosang looked back at them, frowning as he studied the two strange relics from a historical document. “If Hongjoong sent you, yes.” he said finally. 

“Whatever he did to cultivate such loyalty amongst such powerful creatures must mean he was born under a very lucky star.” Apollo commented as he motioned for Venus to step forward. 

“Yes well, we’re lucky he did.” Venus replied as she approached, kneeling down in front of Wooyoung. “Come little one. Let me aid you.” she asked, arms out seeming to hug him. 

Wooyoung tensed, but at Yeosang’s gentle nudge he stepped forward into her arms. He felt that same fiery warmth spread over him, a gentle laugh inside his mind as he heard her voice there, like gentle bell chimes. _“Oh you are mischievous my little starburst. What fun we shall have together!”_

Yeosang looked at Apollo nervously as he let go of Wooyoung’s hand, stepping forward instead of letting the being approach him. He took a quick breath, before putting up his hand. Apollo seemed to understand, grinning as he put his hand up as well, reaching out to touch their palms. There was a flash of brilliant white, and Yeosang felt a static chase through his body. There was a flicker in his mind, and a test of wills that he quickly overcame, Apollo easily letting him be in control. _“I will not fight you, young one. I only wish to help, and to keep my family together.”_ his voice spoke gently, and despite Yeosang wanting to be suspicious, he had to admit...it rang true. 

“We’re ready to accept your aid.” Wooyoung and Yeosang spoke together, hands linking once more. As they spoke, the forest fell away, back into the darkness once more. 

On the battlefield, violet eyes met molten gold, twin smiles lighting up handsome features. Weapons in hand, both men turned and leapt up to charge. 

\---

“Yunho there you are!” 

Yunho looked up in confusion at San, reaching up to grab the navigator and pull him down before he got shot. “What are you doing?! San what are you...why are your eyes like they are?” he asked, touching the other’s face in concern. 

San wriggled from his hands, giving him an apologetic smile. “I will explain I promise, but you have to take this. Do you know where Mingi is?” he held out a mirror shard. 

Yunho stared at it, raising a brow as he looked back up. “What is that? Mingi’s with Seonghwa, fighting that assassin brother.” he replied, looking up over his barrier. He could see them fighting in the distance, easily recognized by the blue flashes of that arm cannon the weapons expert now had. He wanted to go so badly, but he was pinned down. 

“Oh. Perfect. Here.” San shoved the mirror shard at him again. “Just take this, please?” he gave him his best pleading face. 

Yunho frowned, that face normally worked but it was highly offset by that weird sheen in the navigator’s eyes. Still, he couldn’t really do anything when the mirror shard was basically stabbed into his hand, a sudden heated jolt running through him and a blinding flash erupting around him that made him slam his eyes shut. 

“Oh no. Oh dear. Mercury how dare you.” A troubled female voice spoke quickly, and Yunho jerked when he felt calloused but warm hands holding his bleeding hand. 

The blond opened his eyes, staring in surprise at a short pink haired woman who was very busily ripping her skirt to get a strip of fabric to bandage his cut. She had a simple green laurel around her head, burning yellow eyes filled with concern set in a small beautiful face. On her back was a large ancient weapon that if Yunho could remember his history, and Mingi’s weird babbling, was some kind of string projectile. 

“Um.” Yunho said finally, very smartly. 

She looked up at his face, smiling cheerfully at him. “Hello precious one! You feel like sunlight.” she leaned back, sitting back with crossed legs. 

Yunho blinked, just staring. “I..um. Thanks?” he finally said. 

“Of course! Now, on to business. I am Diana! It’s nice to meet you, child of sunlight! Your dear captain has sent me to help you. Tell me, do you know how to use a bow?” 

“Where’s Hongjoong?” Yunho demanded immediately, eyes narrowing as he looked around, blinking when he realized the battlefield around them seemed frozen. He tried to stand, but was immediately stopped by the pink haired woman. 

“Wait! Hold on. Do you accept my aid?” She asked quickly. 

“What? Are you going to aid us in the fight?” Yunho looked back at her. 

Diana snorted. “You’re very bad at listening, child of sunshine. Now tell me, do you know how to use a bow?” 

Yunho frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t. I’ve never even seen one.” he replied, motioning to his pulse rifle. “That’s what we normally use.” 

Diana wrinkled her nose as she looked at it. “Oh! How inelegant.” she huffed. “But I think we can do better. So? Do you accept my aid?” 

Yunho swallowed hard, looking over where he knew Mingi and Seonghwa were, before looking back. “Yes. Help me save them.” he replied sharply. 

Diana tilted her head, laughing. “Oh you’re all so alike! It’s so cute.” she reached up, tapping him on the forehead. “Your wish is my command, little sunshine.” 

Yunho felt that same shock through him, and then winced at a sudden explosion near him. He reached out to his pulse rifle, eyes widening when he pulled up not his trusty weapon, but a very new version of the bow Diana had been wearing. It was bronze and glowed yellow between the metal plates, a beam of pure light on either end of the bow for a string. He stood, staring at it in confusion until a soft voice whispered _“Pull back on the string, and aim true.”_

Yunho hesitated, a flash of just how to do such a thing coming to his mind, and he turned towards the oncoming Fed troops, doing what he was told. Aiming and gripping the light string, he pulled back, and fired. What looked like an arrow of pure light shot forward, exploding and sending the troopers flying. Yunho grinned, eyes flaring the same yellow as his arrow. “Alright...let’s do this.” he turned, racing forward towards where he’d last seen his crew. 

\---

Seonghwa grunted as he blocked another slice from his brother’s vibro-sword, stepping with the blow to try and drive his own into the man’s side. Salin danced away laughing, eyes widening just a bit as he threw himself to the left, just barely missing a blast of blue energy from the cannon on Mingi’s arm. Seonghwa cursed quietly, wishing he could have driven him a bit faster into the other’s firing range. 

“Two against one seems a bit unfair.” Salin crooned, turning to throw quick flechettes at Mingi, who managed to avoid most of them, grunting when two impacted against his chest and right arm. 

Mingi stood, ripping the small blades out, ignoring the burning sensation he already felt on the wounds that meant there was probably some kind of poison on them, blue eyes burning as he took aim once more. “I won’t let you hurt any of them.” He snarled as he braced, powering up the cannon once more to fire. 

“In a few minutes you won’t have the option to stop me.” Salin sneered, quickly throwing himself back from both the explosive laser blast and Seonghwa’s attack from behind him. 

“Then I guess I need to end you in a few minutes. Let’s go.” Mingi shot right back, launching himself at the lithe assassin, surprisingly quick for his large frame, feinting left and then punching the other man in the face. 

Salin staggered back, grey eyes slitting in annoyance as he stumbled back. “Fine. We end it here.” he snarled, lunging forward with blinding speed to ram his shoulder into Mingi’s stomach. 

Mingi fell back, grunting as he hit the ground, gasping as his breath exploded from his lungs. He didn’t have time to react when Salin’s knee landed on his stomach, left cannon arm coming up but blocked by the assassin’s grip, the sword coming up over his chest. 

“Time’s up.” Salin grinned down at him, shoulder jerking as he aimed to bring the blade down. 

Multiple things happened at once, the main one being Salin suddenly going flying off the redhead and landing in a heap several feet away, stunned from the sudden impact of an entire body slamming into his side. Mingi had tensed, expecting to be stabbed, but instead stared up in shock at San’s handsome face. San smiled at him, handing him a broken piece of glass and kissing him on the cheek, before giving him a little wave and a quick “Bye!”, vanishing just as quickly as he’d appeared. 

Mingi didn’t have time to really try and understand what the heck had just happened, when a jovial laugh had him jerking in surprise, sitting up and standing at an older man in black armor. He was short and stout, muscles very obvious in his bulging arms and bare legs. He wore a heavy workman’s belt on his hips, ancient tools Mingi had only ever read about hanging from them. 

“Ah! You are quite the choice aren’t you.” The older man chuckled, moving to offer his hand to help Mingi up. 

Mingi took it, looking around them at the frozen battlefield. “Is this the poison he just shot in me?” he asked immediately. 

“No no, this is that mirror shard your friend handed you. It allows us to communicate until you accept my offer for assistance. I am Vulcan, and you are a very interesting young being.” Vulcan offered a flourishing bow, before reaching up to dust Mingi’s front off. “Your craftsmanship is superb.” he said as he immediately admired the redhead’s cannon arm. 

Mingi couldn’t help but feel a warm flush run over his cheeks, it always happened when someone complimented his work. “I..I’m sorry. Vulcan? The Anyangi God of smithing?” he asked in confusion. 

“Correct! Oh you are incredibly smart aren’t you?” Vulcan laughed in surprise. “I should not have doubted, with how your captain seems to see all of you. We were only able to see a smidgen of it but he thinks the universe of all of you.” 

“Hongjoong? He sent you?” Mingi suddenly realized. “Wait, is this...are you part of that Herald thing? The weapon?” 

Vulcan laughed once more, patting the other man on his shoulder hard. “I will explain everything to you, once we have our victory. However there is the problem of what that vile creature introduced to you. I believe you have...four? Five minutes until you are unable to move? We’ve wasted one already. Tell me, do you accept my aid?” he held his hand out in front of him. 

Mingi hesitated, nodded as he reached out to clasp the other’s wrist. “Four minutes is all we need.” he said with certainty. 

The burning shock sliding through him as Vulcan vanished had Mingi shiver, and he could immediately feel the being in his mind. It took a moment to settle, but then he felt the power surge through him. Mingi grinned as he turned, glowing blue eyes flickering with what looked like actual fire as he locked onto Salin’s struggling to stand form. “Ready?” he asked his new power source. 

_“Let’s see what you can do.”_ Vulcan’s amused voice cheered through his mind. 

\---

Seonghwa wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. One second he had been pushing himself off the ground, trying to race forward as his brother aimed to skewer Mingi, the next second San had thrown a piece of glass at him that he had caught. Now he was standing in a cold marble temple that reminded him of the old worship room at the Anyangi castle. It had been a place he and Hongjoong had avoided every time they could, neither of them had been particularly religious and the hours long speeches and preaching had been mind numbing. Somehow, he didn’t think this time would be that boring. 

As if the thought began the theatrics, the dark and gloomy room erupted as sconces along each stone pillar burst into high flame, leading to the wide tall stairs that lead to the altar. Upon the ancient marble stone leaned a tall man in crimson and gold robes, black armor covering his chest, arms, and legs. His pale features were scarred, and he turned his cold grey gaze upon the figure beneath him at the foot of the stairs. 

Seonghwa shivered, he knew who this was immediately. How often had Hongjoong picked this very image for him? It had become his moniker, one he let others use easily, and what he had become known by in their underworld they ran in through the galaxy. He felt the urge to kneel, but forced himself not to, taking a quick breath as he straightened his spine to keep himself upright. “Mars.” he spoke as if greeting an old friend. 

The God of War smirked, pushing off the altar, slow methodical steps leading him down the stairwell until he stood just above the man in front of him. “You carry my name. Chosen by your King. Do you deserve it?” his voice was deep, hard as if forged in fire. Seonghwa wondered if perhaps it had been when this being was first born. 

The black haired male nodded sharply, he knew he couldn’t think about this, he couldn’t pause or show weakness to this being before him. “I do, I would serve my King and those that are mine as you would, until every threat is ended. I will not stop until they are safe.” he replied, hoping his sincerity would at least somewhat cover for how his voice trembled from nerves. 

Mars seemed to consider him, eyes burning into Seonghwa’s very soul. Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for. “Your King has sent me to aid you in this. While you would be a fool to not agree, I must ask. Do you accept?” 

Seonghwa felt the confusion wash over him, but if Hongjoong had sent this being to him, he wasn’t going to refuse and potentially let the others perish for his folly. He nodded. “I will accept, on behalf of Hongjoong and the others. What would you have me do?” 

Mars reached forward, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I will give you what I am, and you will not waste it. Understand?” 

Seonghwa hissed, closing his eyes as a searing pain felt like it burned from the touch and flared deep inside of him. He felt it curl through him, making him feel weak, before a sudden strength seemed to follow. When he opened his eyes he was standing on the battlefield once more, the sounds and explosions around him catalogued and then filed away as unimportant. 

Turning glowing grey eyes towards where Mingi and his brother were, Seonghwa smiled as he threw out his hands to either side, twin kris manifesting in a flash of molten crimson. He felt the amusement of the God inside of him, before he heard the deep voice in his mind. _“Ah, surprising, but impressive. Now, shall we?”_

Seonghwa knelt. “Indeed.” he agreed, before launching himself into the fray once more.

\--- 

Hongjoong stepped out of the temple, jerking in surprise when San suddenly appeared right next to him. “Stars above! I’m getting you a bell if you’re gonna keep doing that.” he huffed. 

San grinned at him, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet before he trotted forward. “Captain! They’re all taken care of!” he said excitedly. “What’s next?” 

Hongjoong looked out towards where his crew was fighting, raising a brow as a giant yellow explosion flashed, and he saw a Fed ship slam into the ground near the far off tree line. “Well, we fight until we can get out of here. When did the Federation show up?” he asked as he ran forward. 

“I dunno, they were here when I came out. I think it’s that commander guy though. Most of the fighters have a laurel pin like Seonghwa’s, but it’s much fancier with crossed spears and stuff.” San held up one that he’d managed to pilfer when running by one of the fighters, offering it to Hongjoong. 

Hongjoong frowned as he took it, eyes narrowing. “Loyalist brands. It’s what my father had all of his loyal followers wear to mark themselves as such. They were banned in the Federation, since it’s supposed to have some pretense of being neutral to all the different factions in it.” he pocketed the pin, tensing when a sudden crimson shield formed over him and San like a dome. 

“Captain.” Jongho’s voice spoke, eyes glowing the same color as he dropped down out of seemingly nowhere, hands up and the devices Mingi had created to cause force fields gleamed with the same crimson power he was now shielding them with. “It’s good to see you up and about. Nice eyes.” he grinned. 

Hongjoong blinked. “What?” he asked, more than a little startled at the change in their youngest. 

“Oh, yeah your eyes are like...gold and white. It’s really pretty.” San cheerfully explained. 

“You are way too happy about everything.” Hongjoong grumbled, grimacing as he reached up to brush over one eye, like somehow he’d be able to change the color back it off if he rubbed it. 

“I feel like I’ve drank all of Jongho’s caff at once.” San replied, grinning apologetically. 

“You’d die if you did that.” Jongho replied casually, stepping into the barrier and looking around. “I think Wooyoung and Yeosang are coming.” he widened the barrier a bit as he spoke. 

Indeed after a second the two appeared, Wooyoung waving and Yeosang right behind him, eyes flaring gold for a moment at the same time a giant explosion erupted behind them. He looked positively smug as he stepped into the barrier. “We found a couple of Mingi’s left over mines. Guess who just blew up a tank?” he said proudly. 

“It was mostly me, but Yeosang helped.” Wooyoung piped up, earning himself a swat from his blond companion. 

“I’ll want to hear all about it when we’re all not dead, back on _Illusion_ and a million kliks from here.” Hongjoong snorted, looking around. “Where are the others?” 

A laser cannon blast explosion of blue mingled with a massive flash of yellow and bright red erupted to the far left of the battle, the very ground rumbling from the power of it. For a moment, even the Federation troops stopped firing and stared at the eruption, the massive mixed power beacon finally fading away. Cresting over the small hill, surrounded by a blue shield, came Yunho and Seonghwa, Yunho supporting a limping Mingi at his side. Mingi was the one producing the shield, his cannon arm up and emitting the powerful tech around them. He only stopped it when they’d reached Jongho’s shield, leaning heavily against Yunho, smiling tiredly at the others. 

“I’m glad you’re all alright.” He said weakly. 

“Mingi what’s wrong?”

“Why is your arm a cannon?”

“...What Hongjoong asked.”

Mingi waved his good hand weakly, trying to stave off Yeosang, Hongjoong, and Jongho respectively. “Later.” he said simply. 

“Trust me, there’s going to be a later.” Yunho practically growled, arm tightening around Mingi’s waist as he hauled the tall redhead up to stand on his feet. “I call dibs on yelling at him first.” 

Hongjoong smirked, nodding. “I wouldn’t dream of taking that from you.” he winked at Yunho, before looking at Seonghwa, eyes searching over him for injuries. He saw a few cuts and lacerations, but the other looked thankfully mostly whole. “Your brother?” he asked finally. 

“Not getting up any time soon.” Seonghwa answered simply, turning his blazing grey eyes towards where the Federation troops were starting to gather their forces. 

“Kim Hongjoong!” A sudden loudspeaker cry went out, making all eight turn to face where the voice had come from. 

From the left over crowd of Feds came the man himself, Commander Avalon standing tall in his Anyangi regalia. The crimson and gold armor stood out amongst the dull blues of the Feds, making him easy to see. He stopped about fifty yards from the others, hazel eyes burning in anger at them. “This ends here! We, the loyal of Anyang, will end this farce and return our home to justice and right!” 

“He really just loves hearing himself talk.” Seonghwa muttered, stepping to Hongjoong’s right. 

“Commander! I’m going to give you one chance. You’ve probably got about an hour before every Osoki warship in the region barrels down upon you, and that’s a lot of men to lose. Leave this place, and us, in peace.” Hongjoong called back out, feeling the tinge of power flow through him that made his voice amplify. He sent a silent thanks to the Gods in his mind. 

Avalon snorted. “We will have rid ourselves of the greatest disappointment our planet has produced when we end your pathetic existence. On behalf of Anyang, and on the Federation, I will destroy those who would stand against justice and law.” 

“He doesn’t sound like he’s in a ‘get back in your ship and leave us alone’ kind of mood.” Jongho commented, edging next to Seonghwa, the barrier never dropping. 

“Which means we need to be in a ‘fight an entire platoon of Federation troops’ kind of mood.” Mingi replied, pushing himself off of Yunho. “We can do it in what...two minutes?” he cocked his arm cannon, the humming weapon powering up as his eyes began to glow brightly once more. 

Yunho snorted, eyes flickering to yellow as he stepped up beside Mingi, the brass and yellow bow appearing in his hand once more. “What, are we going to be slow about it?” he teased. 

“San, take Wooyoung with you to the ship. Fast. Nova, get the lasso ready and yank us up when the ship’s going.” Hongjoong said quietly. 

“Uh, Jup, that's not supposed to be used on people.” Wooyoung said worriedly. 

“Well we’re going to, just this once. I have a feeling the things inside of us now can keep us alive through a little magnetic disruption.” Hongjoong replied with all the confidence he wished he actually felt making that statement. 

“I hope you’re right.” San muttered, shifting to let Wooyoung hop up on his back, hooking his arms under the lavender haired male’s legs. “Hold on tight.” 

“Yeosang, we keep the others alive with enough back up until Nova and Kit get here.” Hongjoong looked at the blond, waiting for the nod of acknowledgement before turning to look back out at the sea of Feds they were facing. 

“Last chance, Avalon. Let us go or else.” Hongjoong called out. 

“Ready to drop the shield on your mark, cap.” Jongho said. 

Avalon shook his head. “Pathetic and egotistical to the last. Troops! Take aim!” his orders were followed as the first line of troopers put up their rifles. 

Hongjoong smiled, eyes glowing their tandem gold and pure white. “Let’s get burning now.”


	14. Chapter 14

There was a small contingent of guards around _Illusion_. They had been placed as their Commander had thought, correctly, that the crew would make a run for it instead of fighting an entire Federation militia. The ten men guarding the access point to the pirate’s ship were waiting for anything and everything. Or at least they thought they were. They were expecting a team of pirates, a wave of laser fire, some kind of battle. What they weren’t expecting was a single member of the crew to suddenly appear four feet from them, offering a small wave and a head tilt with a friendly smile. The sudden concussive blast that sent them slamming into the ship behind them was also completely unexpected, it seemed to have come out of nowhere seconds after the silver eyed male had appeared. 

Wooyoung peeked out from the tree he had been hiding behind, raising a brow at the unconscious men. “I’m worried about how fast you took to this speedy power stuff.” he commented as he came up next to the navigator. 

“Honestly it’s a bunch of weird mathematics with trajectories and velocities that I had to learn when navigating.” San replied with a shrug, jogging now into the ship’s open hangar, the blue barrier easily accepting both him and Wooyoung in. “Let me know when you’re set up, and I’ll get us up in the air.” he bumped his shoulder into the other male’s, before sprinting towards the bridge. 

Wooyoung snorted as he watched him go. “I’m gonna have to start making you so much more food.” he grumbled, heading for the far left wall of the hangar, opening a panel and tapping in the code to bring down the lasso. 

_“We often were concerned by Mercury’s insatiable need to never slow down. I do hope your companion has more discipline.”_

The soft demure voice of the being in his head had Wooyoung flinching, still not used to its existence. He took a quick breath, focusing on stretching the lasso’s arm to the very edge of the hangar barrier, the metal unfolding with it’s normal chugging hum as it was pushed into position. “San tends to go at everything with caution. Do...does that mean it’s really not Mercury doing all of this?” Wooyoung asked finally. “I know you haven’t really tried to take me over or possess me or whatever, but…” 

The voice laughed, and Wooyoung could almost see the woman it belonged to in the corner of his eye, sitting in that grove he had met her, watching him with amusement. 

_“Oh my dearest starlight, none of us will attempt to overcome you and yours. Well, almost all of us.”_ he could imagine her nose wrinkling delicately. _“But I do think Mars is right where he needs to be, your memories are quite clear in how strong his host is.”_

Wooyoung paused, frowning at that. “My memories. You can see them?” he felt oddly shy suddenly, the fact she could see his past made him nervous. What if the beings could all do it? What if they saw what the crew had to do to survive, and didn’t approve? Or really most of their lifestyle, it wasn’t exactly normal. He forced himself to keep working, climbing up into the seat of the lasso, taking the time to actually strap himself in. Yeosang would probably kill him if he gave himself another concussion like he had because he hadn’t worn the seat harness. 

_“I can, when you accepted me within you we merged. As you have my strength, I will live through you.”_ her voice was so expressive, he could see the gentle amusement on her face. _“Do not worry, dear one. I would never dream to judge you and yours. You have saved us from eons of loneliness and isolation. Our power here has nearly destroyed this planet. You are precious and to be revered.”_ she paused, and then added with a conspiratorial tone _“And your life is not that different from ours, in many ways.”_

“I’ll be a lot more interested in what you’re talking about once we’ve got everyone up here and are far, far away from this system.” Wooyoung replied, snorting as he powered up the lasso. It had always reminded him of the old harpoon guns on ancient land ships. He was sort of glad it wasn’t a weapon though, just a way to grab scrap that they’d modified to pull in the shuttles when they had been powered down for some reason. Taking a deep breath, he tapped his comm. “Alright Kit, I’m ready.” 

_“We’ll come in from the west, that should give you plenty of range?”_ San asked to confirm, _Illusion_ hummed to life, the shudder of their take off rattling the ship as it always did when they were in an atmosphere. 

“Should be plenty, we’ll let them know to gather up twenty seconds before I grab ‘em.” Wooyoung replied, flicking on the targeting system. “Please work.” he muttered at the lasso, still nervous about grabbing organic matter that wasn’t protected by metal. 

_“It will. We got this.”_ San called back, the ship lifting off and taking off quickly. 

Wooyoung let out a breath, watching the ground beneath them fly by. “I hope so.”

\---

“Sir! We’ve had to fall back on the left flank! We can’t keep up under their firepower!” 

Avalon growled in frustration, back against one of the barriers his troops had hastily erected when the insane firepower Hongjoong and his crew had started pounding against them had started. “Regroup at main point.” he called out to his comm, looking at his Lieutenant. “Get the cannons ready.” 

His Lieutenant hesitated, but nodded finally and turned, starting to bark orders once more. Avalon risked peeking over the barrier, eyes widening when a massive yellow light flashed and took out ten men ahead of him. He could just make out the blond tall engineer crewmate with some kind of modified projectile before he disappeared into smoke. It didn’t make sense, nothing they were using had normal power, there was no way they had found such advanced weaponry on a planet that hadn’t been inhabited in so long. Had the Osoki military been storing experimental prototypes? Is that what they’d found? 

“Hey Avalon!” 

The Commander grimaced as he heard the voice he despised so greatly call to him in that odd booming way Hongjoong seemed to have been able to create on this planet. He sneered, staying put behind his barrier. 

“We can stop this! There’s no reason more of you troops need to die! If you believe in Anyang and the Herald, stop shooting at it!” 

Avalon’s eyes widened, and he shot up to stare where the silver haired male was addressing him. “Cease fire.” he called out, and his well trained men halted. He ignored their many confused looks as he moved out of his barrier, eyes narrowing. 

“Where is the Herald?” He snapped. 

Hongjoong grinned at him, those strange glowing eyes Avalon had only caught a glimpse of before the firefight had started flashing unsettlingly. 

“We are the Herald.” The captain motioned to his crew, the five others gathering around him, forming a tight line, weapons drawn and ready. 

Avalon looked over the others, but none of them seemed to be holding what was depicted as the Herald. He sneered “You don’t have it, do you? Where is it Kim Hongjoong. Give it to me!” He looked around for the other two missing crew, eyes narrowing. Had they killed them? At least they could have one decisive blow. 

Hongjoong smirked. “It’s not a thing, Avalon. Tell my father when you see him next that if he decides to come after me and mine? We will destroy all of Anyang, per the Herald’s wishes. Tell him the Gods aren’t happy with how he’s been running their ancestral home. Tell him…” Hongjoong paused, before letting out a quick breath. “Tell him that his son is watching, and I won’t let the Herald ever fall into his hands.” 

Avalon was about to respond, when the ex-Fed traitor raised his hands, and the crew was once again surrounded in that strange red shield that he had seen earlier. A heavy woosh of air slammed over them as quite suddenly the pirate’s ship was hovering above. He looked up in confusion, eyes widening when he saw the yellow light of their tractor lasso lashing down onto the glowing red shield ball.   
  
“FIRE! Shoot them down!” He snarled at his troops. 

To their credit, they did begin firing, but their bigger weapons had all been systematically taken down by the pirate’s fight. They were firing at a spaceship with pulse rifles, it barely even pinged off the shielding. Avalon watched in utter frustration as the lasso pulled the remainder of the crew of Illusion into its hangar, before taking off into the atmosphere as quickly as it could. 

“Sir! The Osoki militia is...they’re demanding why we’re here.” The Lieutenant called out after a moment on his comm, face paling as he continued to listen. “They demand we leave or they will destroy all of our cruisers.” 

Avalon swore under his breath, trying to control the rage that filled him. “Tell everyone to retreat. Back to the cruisers. Tell the Osoks we will be gone within the hour.” 

His Lieutenant hesitated, swallowing hard, very obviously not wanting to incur more wrath. “They’ve given us twenty minutes.” he said nervously. 

Avalon groaned. “Of course they have. MOVE!” he practically screamed at his troops, hurrying towards his personal shuttle at a sprint, Hongjoong’s last words burning in his mind. 

\---

“I can’t believe that worked!” 

“Stars above I was so worried we’d be pulled apart.”

“Wait, that was a thing that could’ve happened?!”

“Uh, no! No, we were safe the whole time!”

Mingi smirked as he watched his crew babble amongst each other, taking quick breaths as he forced his left arm back to normal. He held it to him, leaning idly against their new shuttle, just watching his loved ones celebrate their survival. 

_“You should tell them.”_ Vulcan’s concerned voice filled his mind. 

“I’ve only got a minute left.” Mingi replied quietly, eyes closing and opening slowly. “Let me enjoy this.” 

He watched as Seonghwa pulled Hongjoong into a kiss. As Yeosang helped Wooyoung out of the lasso only for the two of them to jump up and down in each other’s arms, even the normally stoic blond filled with the excited adrenaline of survival. It filled his heart with warmth as he watched even Jongho bounce a little, allowing Wooyoung to pull him in a tight hug and smush the stoic crimson haired male between himself and the medic. Each caught his gaze for a fluttering second, giving him a questioning look as to why he was so far from the celebration, but each look was full of warmth and love. For him, for each other, for his family and crew. He sighed, the smile wistful on his face as he silently said goodbye. 

_“I am normally for a stoic warrior’s passing, however--”_ Vulcan’s words were interrupted by Yunho suddenly appearing at Mingi’s side. 

“We did it! Minkyway, you were amazing! When you took on Seonghwa’s brother, I’ve never seen you do something like that, it was so cool!” Yunho smiled at him, bouncing in that puppy-like way he always did when he was excited and happy. 

Mingi watched him, face impossibly soft as a smile played on his lips. “Yunho? I’m sorry for what I did. I...I wanted to protect everyone.” he looked down. “I always tried, right? Did I do well?” 

Yunho tilted his head, the smile dropping a bit at the odd question. “I’m still mad at you, but you did amazing Mingi. I’m even willing to forgive you as long as you buy me ice cream next planet we get to.” he winked at him, trying to cheer him up. 

Mingi grinned at that. “Sure. Next planet.” he felt the numbness, the tingling that started to spread through his system. “Hey...Yunho? Can you tell Hongjoong to keep San out of the armory? Make sure Seonghwa and Wooyoung catalogue it all before you touch it. I...Yunho...” he reached forward, clumsily grabbing onto the other’s suit as his legs gave out, sending him to the hangar floor with a thud on his knees.   
  
“Mingi?” Yunho followed him, trying to hold him up, eyes widening when he saw that the redhead was barely conscious. “Minkyway?! YEOSANG!” The blond bellowed, quickly laying Mingi out on the deck as he searched for wounds. He cursed when he found the two flechette wounds, the skin around them blackened from whatever poison had been on the small weapons. 

Mingi felt hands on him, far away he knew it was probably Yeosang. The others gathered around, he could make out their faces, their fear and Hongjoong shouting. His eyes sought Yunho once more, and he whispered the other’s name once more. Yunho seemed to understand, head dropping down as he tried to hear what Mingi was saying. 

“Tell them...I love them...I love you.” Mingi said softly, eyes sliding closed finally as he gave up his fight with the darkness that had been pulling him under, the final image of Yunho’s tear-filled eyes and his pleading for him to stay awake just a little longer following him into the black. 


	15. Chapter 15

“Jongho keep watching the analysis. Wooyoung hold this. I don’t know why his body is heating up like this, there’s no infection.” Yeosang handed Wooyoung a large bag of liquid, attached to a tube that went into Mingi’s arm on the bed in the med-bay. 

“Pulse is still there, barely.” Jongho called out grimly, ducking one of the drones as it flew over to join it’s six other companions scanning and tapping into the prone redhead’s body. 

_Illusion_ jerked and shuddered suddenly, sending most of them stumbling. Yeosang had managed to keep his grip onto Mingi’s bed, looking up sharply at Hongjoong and Seonghwa, eyes burning nanite green and then gold, flickering back and forth. “What was that?” he snapped, hand hovering over the blackened marks on Mingi’s chest. “I could’ve stabbed him.”   
  
Hongjoong frowned. “We just pulled out of wormhole space. I think San realized something’s happened.” 

Seonghwa hesitated, before turning. “I’ll take care of it.” he quickly hurried from the med-bay towards the bridge. 

“What do you mean San realized? He can hear every room on the ship.” Wooyoung frowned as Hongjoong immediately looked guilty. 

“When Mingi collapsed I...sort of took over all the comms except the main comm and the common room.” Hongjoong admitted. “We needed him focused on flying, I didn’t want him dropping us dead because he was worried.” 

“Great. Perfect. We can talk about that later.” Wooyoung practically growled, glaring at the silver haired male. 

Hongjoong was about to snap back, but his words seemed to fade into nothing, the image of the med-bay becoming shimmery, as if staring at it through a mirror. Mingi blinked slowly, frowning as he stepped back away from it. 

“I can’t hear them anymore.” He said in concern, looking behind him towards the darkened space around him. 

“Your hearing has faded out. It will come back.” Vulcan replied, resting idly on a large lounge chair. He seemed unconcerned, molten eyes studying the sky above them. “What is this place, young creator?” 

Mingi looked around, actually focusing on the space they were in. As it came into focus, he realized with a jolt what it was. A small log cabin sitting on a lake, late at night. The lounge chair the God-being was in had been a set that he and Yunho had pulled out from the house to rest around the fire pit. He could almost imagine the others and where they were. San, Wooyoung, and Yeosang asleep in the cabin, Hongjoong and Seonghwa sitting on the dock that stretched into the crystal clear water of the lake, counting stars and satellites. Jongho and Yunho sitting in comfortable silence around the slowly dying embers. This was one of his favorite memories, when they had finally incorporated San into their relationship, and Hongjoong had decided they could hide out for a few weeks after a particularly large heist. Everyone had been happy and content in a way that Mingi had never really seen before.

“It’s an outer rim planet. I think Seonghwa called it Lenal.” Mingi replied finally, voice low as he worked to push down the emotions he could feel threatening to overwhelm him. 

“It is very lovely. I can only feel your echoed memories of the place, but the sensations seem quite pleasant.” Vulcan said easily. “Come, sit.” he motioned to the other lounge chair that should have housed Yunho and Jongho, but was empty. 

Mingi did as he was requested, sitting and staring into the flickering embers of the dying fire in front of him, frowning. “Why am I not dead?” he asked finally. 

“I could say it was my doing, and sound far more powerful than I am. However the truth is more insidious. The poison introduced to your system is not unlike a rather vicious creation Mars once used long ago. It is not meant to kill, simply create the illusion of death. Paralysis, lowered breathing, induction of a sleep-like state that would convince your companions of your fate. Once left you would awaken, unable to move, to be devoured by beasts or killed by starvation or the elements over the days.” Vulcan grimaced. “Truly a cowards way to kill, but Mars was nothing if not vindictive towards those he deemed worthy of such a death.” 

“That sounds awful. I never liked poisons, I always hated when they’d try to incorporate them into my weapons when I was creating for the Federation.” Mingi replied quietly. 

“Unfortunately there are many who find use for them, and while they do quicken death with less bloodshed.” Vulcan paused, looking at the redhead curiously. “You have not asked when you will awaken?” 

Mingi blinked, looking at him now. “Oh. Well, I figured whenever Yeosang can neutralize it, and I heal up.” he replied with a shrug. 

Vulcan chuckled, the sound deep and joyous. “Ah, you trust your companions that deeply? It is refreshing to see such loyalty.” 

Mingi snorted. “It’s earned though. Yunho saved me, Hongjoong gave me a place. They’ve never failed me in all the years I’ve been with them. They can do anything, I’ve seen them succeed in odds that were infinitesimal. They’re...the best.” he flushed slightly as he said it, he knew it was too warm, too fond. 

Indeed Vulcan laughed, but it was fond as well. “You feel as I feel of my fellows.” his deep voice turned wistful. 

Mingi glanced at him, taking the moment he had been given. “What are you?” 

Vulcan blinked, looking at him. “What do you mean?” 

“You aren’t a God. Gods don’t exist, at least I don’t think they do in the way scriptures and religious stories tell them. What are you?” Mingi frowned at him. 

Vulcan snorted. “You are so sure Gods do not exist, young one? Perhaps you are simply too much of a mortal to understand.” 

Mingi huffed, sitting up and crossing his arms over his chest. “You were stuck in a temple on a planet for however long, Gods don’t get stuck like that.” 

“Well, as you’re the apparent expert on Gods, I’ll defer to your wisdom.” Vulcan replied dryly, settling back to look up at the stars once more. 

Mingi fidgeted, but sighed as the silence stretched on. “Fine, maybe you are a God. How did you end up where you were? Why Anyang?” 

Vulcan smiled faintly. “I cannot explain what we are, but the idea of myself and the others as Gods did not happen until terrans from ancient times arrived on our planet. They began to terraform, and we took interest in them. Well, some of us did. Some took offense at their destruction of our home. It took quite a long time to convince Mars to accept them, I don’t know if he ever truly did. There were some that prayed to us as we caused mischief, and they gave us names that they understood. As they waged war, we assisted those we saw as just. During famine and disease we aided as we could, but unlike what they believed, we were not all powerful.” 

The large man finally sat up, hands resting upon either side of the lounge as he studied the fire now, frowning in thought. “We took on their appearances, ancient Gods of a time long lost in terran history. As war raged once more, we were betrayed. A group of terrans found a way to harness our power and energy, and they trapped us within an object. There were...more of us, when it first happened.” His voice was barely a whisper. “Endless years passed, and their power was slowly spent. Jupiter protected us as he could, but slowly they faded until there was nothing left. It was myself, Mars, and Venus that finally found our means of escape. Venus distracted the mortal that tried to take our power, and Mars and I threw everything we had into him, destroying the being within and taking over his body. We quickly pulled the others who were left into the body, but we knew it was too much. We worked to escape, a ship that carried us as far from our home planet as possible.” 

Vulcan finally looked back at Mingi, the smile returning to his lips, though it was wistful and sad. “Where your captain found us was where we managed to get before the vessel burst. The beings on that planet were sparse, and we sealed ourselves into safety far away from any that could possibly find us. We withered, and became despondent in isolation, but it was far better than the alternative.” 

Mingi swallowed hard as he listened, he didn’t know if it was his own sadness he felt, or Vulcan’s, but it felt as if a great pit had opened in his stomach. “You wanted to do that to Hongjoong.” he said quietly. “To escape.” 

Vulcan shook his head “We did not want to, believe me we did not want to hurt him. We were so tired of being in that place though, near crazed to escape and just see the stars once more. I can truly say the happiest I have ever been is when the knowledge came that we could once more venture out, without harming that boy. Any of you. One day, when we are strong again, we can even leave you all to your devices.” he winked at him. “If you wish us to go, of course.” 

Mingi grinned at his wink, settling back as he tried to look as calm as possible. He could feel his mind whirling with everything Vulcan had just told him, but he could not let the other how distressed he was of the story. Not that he thought the other was lying, far from it. Still, it was sad to think of them being alone for so long that their only hope of freedom was to destroy someone’s soul. “Well, you can leave, only after you’ve taught me everything you know of constructing tools and weapons.” He tried to joke gently, wanting to lighten the mood. 

Vulcan snorted, but it worked, the big man smiling as he nodded. “Aye, I can agree to that, little creator. We have much we can teach all of you.” 

“I got it!” Yeosang’s voice suddenly boomed around them, making Mingi wince as he looked over at that white image that had been the others. 

“Ah, it looks as if they’ve discovered how to wake you up.” Vulcan smiled, flopping back on his lounge chair, one arm curling under his head. “Do enjoy your time amongst the living.” 

Mingi smiled. “How do I wake up?” he asked as he stood. 

“Walk through the screen. Go back to yourself. I’ll see you here when you need me, I’m quite fond of this spot.” Vulcan reached up, waving his hand dismissively in farewell. 

Mingi waved back, looking towards the screen. “Time to go get murdered as soon as I wake up.” he muttered, remembering Yunho’s panicked face. He forced himself forward, stepping into the light before he could have second thoughts. 

  
  


EPILOGUE

Hongjoong shivered in the crisp mountain air, sipping caff from a dented silver mug. He wrapped his fingers around it to let the warmth fend off the chill of the morning, looking over the still lake that had just begun to shimmer from the morning rays of the sun. It was still early enough that no animals were coming to visit the water, and everything was completely silent. At least until he heard the soft tinkling of the chimes that Wooyoung had hung on the door when they’d first arrived ring out, and he glanced over to see who had joined him on the porch. 

Seonghwa shuffled over to him, wearing blue slippers and a silver pajama set. He stopped beside the silver haired male, sipping his own caff as he joined him in staring out into the silent morning. He let the comfortable silence stretch for a moment, before speaking in a quiet tone. “Yunho went to sleep finally. Mingi’s up, he and Yeosang are starting breakfast.” 

Hongjoong sighed, sipping his caff once more. Mingi had woken up two weeks ago, after being in what Yeosang had eventually figured out was an induced coma, but they had all thought was near death, for an entire week. Once Mingi had been up and around, and the crew had been at a near breaking point of emotion, the redhead had suggested they go to Lenal. Hongjoong had seized on the idea immediately, and they had been there for the past three days. It was still tough, Yunho refused to sleep while Mingi was asleep, staying up and just watching the other until Mingi woke up in the morning. Jongho had been taking over some of it, telling Yunho he’d watch him for four hours if Yunho went to bed, but it had only worked for a few days so far. 

The door chimed again, this time with Wooyoung and San coming out, chatting easily between each other. They were dressed in skin tight matching shorts, Wooyoung in a bright red tank top, and San wearing a blue t-shirt. When San noticed Hongjoong he stopped talking, his easy smile falling, face becoming stony and guarded. Wooyoung frowned as he looked over, shooting Hongjoong an apologetic look and a smile. “Hey Joongie, Hwa. We’re going for a run. We’ll be back in half an hour!” 

“Be careful, Jongho saw some kind of big predator in the woods yesterday when he was going for wood.” Seonghwa told them, earning himself twin nods before both men took off to head along the far side of the lake towards the trail they used. 

Hongjoong sighed as he watched him go, staring down at his caff. “I don’t think he’s going to forgive me.” he said quietly. 

Seonghwa shifted, wrapping an arm around the smaller male’s shoulders, squeezing him gently. “He will. He misses you, he’s just...scared.” he frowned. “I understand it too, he was cut off from all of us, you didn’t let him know what was happening to someone he loves. He found out from a monitor on a wall.” 

Hongjoong leaned against Seonghwa, the spark of anger he felt at wanting to defend himself faded with how much he just _missed_ San. “I wouldn’t just do that without a purpose. He knows that right? You...you know that?” 

Seonghwa paused, sipping his caff. It was just long enough for Hongjoong to panic before he found himself pulled into a tight hug. He tensed, before just burying his face into Seonghwa’s chest, breathing him in as he felt weeks of anxiety start to seep out. 

“Hongjoong, I trust you more than I trust myself. Believe me when I say I know what you did, and why you did it. He does too, he just has to sort through his feelings. We’re dangerously dependent on each other, which if I cared more I would suggest we work on it. This is just something we will deal with and be stronger for if there is a next time.” Seonghwa spoke quietly into his hair, kissing the top of his head once he was finished. He didn’t let go until Hongjoong pulled back, and he smiled down at him, gently wiping the stray tear that was running down his cheek. 

“Breakfast is ready! Get in here before Mingi eats it all!” Yeosang called out as he opened the door, eyeing them. “Both of you need to eat more.” he chided, waving a spatula threateningly. 

Hongjoong laughed, quickly hiding a sniffle as he wiped his nose. “Yes sir.” he teased, pausing and leaning up to kiss Seonghwa’s cheek. “Thank you.” he said softly, heading inside. 

The rest of the day went by comfortably. Hongjoong watched as the others interacted, Mingi was loud and cheerful and managed to convince Seonghwa to go swimming with him. Yeosang and Jongho had gone fishing after breakfast, leaving Hongjoong to do the dishes. Wooyoung and San had come back for late breakfast, and Hongjoong tried not to notice the small glances the lithe navigator kept giving him as he served them. Yunho got up near lunch and they made sandwiches and lemonade, heading out to bring it to the table that was on the dock. By that time the fish they would eat for dinner was cleaned and ready near the fire pit, and Mingi had finally tired of swimming, sunburned and pleased with how he’d gotten Seonghwa’s hair to stick up all over the place from the water. 

Later that afternoon as the others cooked up vegetables and their fish, Jongho had pulled Hongjoong aside with a secretive smile that had lit up his handsome features. 

“Avalon was dismissed from the Federation.” His normally calm voice near bouncing in excitement. 

“What?” Hongjoong asked, eyes widening comically. 

Jongho held up his padd, showing him a deciphered message. “Chinhae sent this to me. Apparently the Federation was incredibly angry that an entire squadron of Anyang loyalists had acted against their orders of neutrality, and nearly caused a war with Osok. Not only that, but Anyang has been removed from their seat on the council and demoted to outside Federation space protection. They’ll come help with matters like famine or natural disasters, but if say Osok comes to retaliate for their actions on Kathar, the Federation won’t defend them.” 

Hongjoong couldn’t help but smile, it worried him for his people on Anyang but this was a massive step for the Federation, something he had never thought would happen. “That’s...is Chinhae alright?” he asked, remembering Jongho’s friend that had been right in the middle of all that nonsense. 

Jongho snorted “ _Commander_ Chinhae is now in charge of the cruiser and portion of the fleet Avalon used to be in charge of. He got promoted after he fed the Federation all the information he had, and some I managed to dig up to give him, on the ex-Commander and his dealings. Chinhae also pulled some strings. Look.” he flipped through his padd, handing it to Hongjoong, practically glowing in excitement. 

Hongjoong stared at what Jongho had handed him, eyes narrowing in confusion. It was a list of their crew, each held their criminal records. Their completely empty criminal records. “What...Jongho?” he looked up at him. 

“He went through all the charges Avalaon lobbied against us all. He cleared all of them, as unlawful against Federation citizens, which all of us are technically. The Federation courts, probably not wanting to get bad press for Avalon and his crazy beliefs, agreed to clear everything. We’re free to do whatever we want, go wherever we want.” Jongho smiled at him. “Not bad for one contact, right?”

Hongjoong laughed, throwing his arms around the other, squeezing him tightly as he cheered. “Jongho you are a brilliant amazing person and I love you.” he exclaimed, quickly letting go but grabbing the redhead by the hand, racing towards where the others were to tell them the news. 

Later as the sun fell below the tall mountains, well fed and curled up by the fire, Hongjoong watched his crew. Yunho and Mingi were resting together, roasting marshmallows while laughing at a story Jongho was telling them. Yeosang and Wooyoung were talking animatedly with Seonghwa, the tall dark haired male obviously entertaining them as Wooyoung laughed loud and shrill into the night. He had just been about to get up off his blanket to go join them, when a gentle weight settled at his left. 

Hongjoong looked over in surprise, he hadn’t even heard the navigator approach but there was San sitting next to him, staring into the fire. He held still, as if trying to freeze to keep a frightened animal from bolting. San seemed to be considering something, before he raised his right hand and placed it palm up on Hongjoong’s knee. Hongjoong hesitated, but reached out with his left, lacing their fingers together. San leaned over then, resting his head on Hongjoong’s shoulder, melting against him. 

“Will you come running with me tomorrow?” San asked quietly, eyes never leaving the fire. 

Hongjoong nodded, unable to speak from the lump in his throat. It was the way his navigator forgave. There was no real discussion, at least not yet, but San wanted him there, with him. He would not disappoint him. There would be time. Time to discuss feelings, and work on Yunho’s new obsession with making sure Mingi woke up. Time to find out more about the beings now inside each of them, and time to figure out what to do with them. 

Later that night, curled up in bed with all seven of his crew and lovers surrounding him, Hongjoong smiled as he felt San nuzzle into the back of his neck, Jongho’s strong arms wrapped around both of them behind the small navigator. Seonghwa was to his right, their hands linked loosely as his second slept heavily. Somehow Wooyoung and Mingi had wedged themselves up against the dark haired male, Wooyoung at his back and Mingi on top of them both, snoring quietly. Yeosang was curled up with his head in Yunho’s lap, the blond engineer running his fingers soothingly through the medic’s hair as he leaned back against the head of the bed, his other hand curled against Mingi’s back to feel him breathe. 

Hongjoong raised a brow at him, whispering as he did not want to wake any of the others up. “Pup, get some sleep. I can stay up and watch him.” he offered gently. 

Yunho smiled weakly at him. “Not yet, Jup. I just...not yet. I’ll sleep though, I promise.” he answered softly. “You get some sleep though, you look way too comfortable to be awake.” he winked at him. 

Hongjoong sighed, but there would be time for it. They had all the time in the galaxy now, and all the freedom to do whatever they wanted in it. “I love you.” he told Yunho, looking at his pile of people curled around each other. He smiled, closing his eyes and settling in to let the warmth of the people he loved take him to a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed my story and I really appreciate all the kind comments! You've all really encouraged me to keep going with this, you're all super great!


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